(Almost) A Million Litigator Refunds
By Craig Morgan Teicher -- Publishers Weekly, 10/2/2007 12:21:00 PM
In the class action lawsuit against James Frey and his former publisher Random House over Frey’s discredited memoir, A Million Little Pieces —the result of which was that Frey and RH were ordered to refund the purchase price of the book to anyone who submitted a claim (up to $2.35 million)—it’s not readers, but the lawyers, who are demanding money.
October 1, 2007 was the deadline to submit a claim for a refund of the $14.95 retail price of the paperback. According to The Smoking Gun, the website that first broke the news that Frey had fictionalized and exaggerated his best-seller, only 1,345 readers have submitted claims as of September 17th. Because the refunds will not amount to the $2.35 million Frey and RH agreed to pay, the two parties have agreed to charitable contributions of $235,000.
Now that readers have had their chance, the lawyers who represented the class members are seeking $788,333.33 to cover legal fees associated with the suit, as stated in a declaration filed last Friday in a U.S. district court in Manhattan.
