STALL OF CLAIMS PROCESSING

Processing has stalled because of a problem. In 2005 the then class counsel, today know as A/B counsel because they represent the A and B category claims, posted advice on the settlement website for people who had syndicated their articles. In essence the advice said for each such article you only have one claim, but for amount paid to the author, which determines the compensation for B and C claims, the claimant should submit the total paid by all syndicating publications. It is know some claimants did this. I don't know how many.

Later, after all the appeals, the AB counsel agreed, at the insistence of the Defense, that the advice was wrong, inconsistent with the settlement. If they knew then (2013) that the claims database had a problem because of that advice, they didn't tell me.

I've discovered in the last month that there is a problem. For the people who submitted claims that way, the data base doesn't have the information necessary for proper presentation of claims to the Defense, so that process can't even start. That process, and the process of getting publisher and database money to pay claims, is an estimated six months mimimum.

There have been discussions about the problem, but no solution yet. The situation is testy because I think the AB counsel are responsible for the problem.

I'm presenting the problems to Judge Daniels immediately, but court processes are notoriously slow.

IF ANYONE KNEW ABOUT THAT SYNDICATION ADVICE IN 2005, OR USED IT, OR SPOKE TO CLASS COUNSEL ABOUT IT, PLEASE CONTACT ME.

CHALMERSCD@GMAIL.COM

Estimate for payments

The A/B counsel have posted on the settlement website their estimate that "at present, the earliest that payments can be expected is in the third quarter of this year, 2015, especially if there are objections or disputes over claims."

I would not approve that post. I believe that it is seriously misleading. Based on current status, I believe there is virtually no chance of payments in the third quarter. There is a theoretical possibility, but it would require the involved publishers, and then the involved databases, to take much less than their allotted time to perform tasks which lead to the payment of the claims. To the extent that "at the present" suggests there is any chance that the timing could improve and payments become more likely in the third quarter it is even more seriously misleading. 

There are 233 days allotted for the publishers and databases. There are circumstances which could extend those allocations and it is impossible to predict the possibility of those circumstances. There are over 5000 publishers who must take an action in this process. This aspect of the settlement may make it one of, if not the, most complicated class action claims processing ever. The actions to be taken to start the 233 days running have not been completed and I am unable to provide an estimate of when they will be completed. 

I will be posting regularly here now on claims processing procedures, progress and problems. 

Many or most of you will be infuriated by this delay. Unfortunately, there is no place to effectively complain or urge greater speed. The procedures are what they are. Have the actions of class counsel in general, or any particular class counsel, aggravated this situation. The answer in my view is yes, but now is not the time to discuss that. Getting this done has my full attention and all of my time that my responsibilities require. 

If anyone in the class, C claim or otherwise, observed the advice on the settlement website in 2005, quoted below, and filed their claim with this advice in mind, it might help the current status if you would contact me. chalmerscd@gmail.com.

Q. If I wrote articles as a syndicated columnist, how should I go about filing a Claim Form? Do I include a separate claim for every publisher who published a particular article, or just one claim for each article.

Q. When filing a Claim Form, syndicated columnists should fill out just one Claim Worksheet for each article. However, that worksheet should include the name of each print publication the syndicated article originally appeared in. In addition, when listing the amount received in payment for that article, list the total amount received for the article. 

CLAIMS PROCESSING PROCEDURES, TIMING AND MAJOR ISSUE

   Claims processing involves three major steps.

Evaluation of claims by the Claims Administrator according to established criteria.
Challenges to claims by publishers or databases.
Resolution of defense challenges which can't be informally resolved.

A large part, but not all, of the first step took place in 2005-6. The remaining part took place over the last several months and more than 1300 claimants received notices about possible problems with a claim. They are responding. Their responses are considered and a decision made.

Then, the claims that have made it through that process and are still considered eligible are submitted to publishers and databases, who then can present challenges to those claims. Those challenges are presented to claimants who can respond to the challenge. The parties will attempt to informally resolve such challenges, but if that is not possible that dispute will go to a third party for a decision which is final and without appeal. There will be no payments until this process is completed.

There have been statements indicating that this could be completed by early 2015. That is possible but, in my view, optimistic.

There is an issue of major significance presenting itself. I say major because it affects thousands of works and at least hundreds of claimants. In general it involves claims for works that were syndicated. This issue was identified during the negotiations in 2012-13. It was not resolved by those negotiations. It must be resolved now. The parties are commencing discussions to that end.

I am purposely not discussing details of this issue at this time. However, if it appears that it will significantly delay claims processing I will describe it here. It is not an issue on which, so far as I can tell now, claimant input would be helpful.

Notices from Administrator about eligible publications

To class members receiving notice about their articles not being eligible because the publisher does not appear on the official list.  If you know or believe that your article appeared on or in any database or archive that was available to anyone, for example on a website run by the publisher or an individual publication, provide whatever information you have to the Administrator. You can also provide a copy of your information to me. I will make every effort to see that all eligible articles are recognized. It appears that there may be some publications that did not copy their print articles to databases or websites, so some articles may not be eligible. Charles Chalmers, C Claims Counsel, chalmerscd@gmail.com. 

CLAIMS PROCESSING AND CLAIMS INFORMATION

The processing of claims hasn't started yet, but preparations for that processing are under way. The time for the processing is unclear but almost certainly will be in the neighborhood of six months.

There will one or two ocassions during that time that you will receive a notice from the administrator about any specific claims or work for which there is question or problem, unless you received a notice on the problem in 2006. At that time you will have the opportunity to offer your view, except for omissions or defects for which you received a letter in 2006.

We have an interim report on the claims which reflects an initial review by the administrator, and it categorizes claims in various ways. It details problems if any have been spotted at this time, and if none it indicates the value of the claim. This is definitely interim, as there is another detailed process of review for eligibility that will take place in coming months.

The administrator will not respond to individual inquiries. However, time permitting, I will respond to them.
I say time permitting because there are about 2500 claimants. I will do the best I can but a response may not be prompt. I will do this for all categories.

It will be helpful to us if you do contact me because by reviewing with you any problems that have already been identified I may be able to improve the future processing, and possibly shorten the time.

Charles D Chalmers
chalmerscd@gmail.com

OBJECTION DEADLINE PAST

The objection deadline is past. There is one objection about faulty mailing of four or five notices in 2005. There are also two or three "complaints" [meaning not formal objections] also about the notice in 2005. There is no objection to the terms of the settlement. This makes it likely, but not certain, that the settlement will be approved on or near June 10th.

There is one issue raised by objection concerning the proposed fee, and fee allocation process among the original class counsel, now referred to as the A/B counsel. There maybe further briefing on that issue, and it should be decided on June 10th. This issue does not appear to have any potential to disrupt the settlement, so even if one or more parties are unhappy with the decision and initiates an appeal, it should not affect the approval of the settlement, or further processing of the claims.

NO CLAIM NOTICES

Many claimants have received a notice that says "no claim" and sometimes with a second one that says they have a claim. Its just a minor screw up. There's an explanation on the settlement website http://www.copyrightclassaction.com/ . Anyone who wants to confirm they have a claim can email me at
cchalmers@allegiancelit.com, or chalmerscd@gmail.com. If a lot people ask (There are about 2500 claimants) it will take be awhile to respond.