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Class Action

Class actions are useful tools to challenge corporate misconduct or defective products that affect large numbers of people whose injuries or damages are not sufficient to bring their own case individually. A class action allows them to achieve justice in their claim by having them all resolved in the same case.

Our thorough, strategic and personable approach leads to class action decisions that benefit our clients - and, often, consumers in general.

Following are examples of our class action experience:

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Burial Site Recovery and Protection

The Lummi Nation v. Engineering Firm

$4.25 million settlement

Plaintiff's co-counsel: Michael E. Withey, Paul L. Stritmatter, Brad J. Moore

After an engineering company uncovered 28 intact ancestral remains and took them out of state without notifying the Lummi tribe, the tribe asked our firm to bring an action. They wanted to recover the significant costs they had expended to recover and rebury those remains as well as others that had been excavated off the site to a landfill. Our legal team, headed by Mike Withey, Paul Stritmatter and Brad Moore, won a signifcant legal ruling that the engineering firm had violated the Indian Graves and Records Act. The decision paved the way for a $4,250,000 settlement for the tribe and more than 1,230 tribal members.

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Smith, et. al. v. Behr Process Corporation

$67.5 million class action verdict

Plaintiffs’ counsel: Paul L. Stritmatter, Michael E. Withey, Kevin Coluccio

Paul learned that several Western Washington homeowners and business people had mildew on their exterior wood walls after using a Behr clear coating, a product the manufacturer claimed would prevent mildew growth. Paul pulled together the class-action case on behalf of nine plaintiffs, and Behr was charged with breach of warranty and Consumer Protection Act violations. The initial case grew to national status, and in an October 2002 settlement, Behr agreed to compensate consumers more than $107 million. In addition, some 5,000 Western Washington homeowners shared an additional $55 million to repair their mildew-damaged homes.

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Sitton v. State Farm

Confidential settlement

Plaintiffs’ co-counsel: Brad J. Moore, Karen K. Koehler, Michael E. Withey

This consumer class action alleged that State Farm, the nation's largest auto insurer, acted in bad faith by relying upon "records reviews" to limit or deny people's Personal Injury Protection insurance benefits.