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Class-Action Attorneys Subject of New Class-Action Suit

2 min read

Robert Trammell, the Little Rock attorney who tried to slow down a controversial class-action settlement in Polk County Circuit Court last fall, has now filed a class-action suit against the lawyers who are set to be sanctioned for abusing the court system.

In a civil case filed Friday in Saline County Circuit Court, Trammell represents the interests of three customers of United Service Automobile Association and related USAA companies. He seeks to have the case declared a class action for all the USAA policyholders who he says were the victims of “bad faith” and “collusion” by the attorneys who settled a class-action case in a way that U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III said benefited everyone but the class of plaintiffs.

The case of Adams v. United Service Automobile Association was pending in Holmes’ federal court for 17 months before both sides agreed to dismiss it last June, only to refile it the next day in circuit court complete with a settlement that Holmes said he would not have approved.

Trammell had objected to the settlement in Polk County, but it was approved without amendment by Circuit Judge Jerry Ryan. After Arkansas Business reported on Trammell’s objection and the curious strategy used to get the case into circuit court for quick settlement, Holmes investigated and ultimately announced that he will sanction 16 attorneys, 13 representing USAA policyholders and three defending USAA’s interests.

The attorneys include John Goodson of Texarkana, husband of state Supreme Court Justice Courtney Goodson and a member of the University of Arkansas board of trustees. Others are Goodson’s law partner Matt Keil, W.H. Taylor of Fayetteville and Lyn Pruitt of Little Rock.

According to Trammell’s new suit, which also names USAA and related companies as defendants, approximately $3 million of the $3.4 million that USAA was required to set aside to pay victims went unclaimed. He also alleges that the $1.85 million that the plaintiffs’ attorneys were paid was “approximately twelve (12) times the total benefit produced to the class members,” underlining the math for emphasis. That suggests that only about $150,000 was actually paid to the few policyholders who completed what Trammell complained was an onerous and unnecessary claims procedure.

The lawsuit is suing the defendants individually and collectively for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

Holmes, of Fort Smith, has scheduled a hearing Friday in which he will announce the sanctions against the 16 attorneys. The plaintiffs’ attorneys have asked that he impose no sanctions, arguing that the bad publicity they have received as been punishment enough. Only one of the 16 attorneys, Stephen Engstrom of Little Rock, is not named as a defendant in Trammell’s suit.

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