U.S. District Judge Manuel Real approved a roughly $49 million settlement in the BAR/BRI class action Monday — but only after rejecting incentive payments to five class representatives, claiming they had a conflict of interest.
The judge also delivered lower attorney fees than previously suggested for the class action, which alleged that West Publishing and Kaplan Inc., both major players in the legal test prep market, cut a secret deal to give West’s BAR/BRI a virtual monopoly over bar review courses, and Kaplan less competition in LSAT preparation classes. The proposed settlement called for the class of about 300,000 current and former law students to collect about $125 each.
