The Bandas Law Firm, one of the country’s most active objectors to class-action settlements, has bedeviled courtroom dealmakers for years. Now prominent Chicago plaintiffs lawyer Jay Edelson and his firm have lashed out against Texas-based Bandas and others in Chicago federal court, branding them “extortionists” in a lawsuit filed on Monday.
Edelson PC’s proposed class action invokes the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and seeks to recover fees the Bandas firm and affiliated lawyers have taken to drop their settlement objections over the years, a figure potentially totaling millions of dollars. The complaint also asks for an injunction that would bar the lawyers from filing future objections without a judge’s consent.
