Six years of bitter legal battles concluded Thursday in a courtroom full of lawyers who gathered before Cobb County Superior Court Judge J. Stephen Schuster to announce a preliminary $98 million settlement of a class action lawsuit against the Cobb Electric Membership Corp. over sharing profits with customers.
In a deal described as the largest known settlement in the county’s history, the money will go to two classes of EMC members—current and former—to be paid by a claims administrator. A website and call center are being developed. The amount that will go to lawyers, which will come from the $98 million, is yet to be determined. For legal fees and expenses, the attorneys will have to seek approval from the mediator who brought the parties together, Michael Bowers, a partner with Balch & Bingham and former Georgia attorney general.
