Small Engine Class Action Lawsuit

Jim Mattheiss

Member
Messages
467
Location
Long Hill Township, NJ
Hello:

I received a card from a lawyer trying to drum up plaintiffs in a Class Action lawsuit. Apparently the makes of small Internal Combustion Engines were OVERSTATING their horsepower ratings! :eek:

I got a card saying I could get an extended warranty or a possible cash settlement if I join the lawsuit. I'm not interested in joining but I'm waiting for the same to occur with all things electric. My luck I'd get 50 bonus airline miles or something as useful.

Think of the number of people who were unfairly tricked into buying 6 Horsepower vacuums and things like that. . . Some enterprising lawyer will get to it eventually, when they are done fleecing Honda, Briggs and Stratton, Kawasaki and all the rest.

Cheers

Jim
 
I think lawyers, doctors and drug companies should not be allowed to advertise.... I get a "class action suit" notice about every 2 weeks from somebody suing somebody for something.. it's getting rediculous!:(

'course somedays if it wasn't for the junk mail, we wouldn't get much mail. They wouldn't have to cut so many trees for the paper either.:D
 
Mebbe I shoulda been a lawyer. My take is litigation lawyers keep things running straight. If folks lie, hit 'em in the pocketbook. We don't chop off hands like some countries. Cash penalties hurt worse.
I could, maybe will, write a book on unseen and benign nursing home neglect.
In addition......Oops.....I just came up to the CoC 'do not cross' line. :rolleyes:
BTW, the lawnmower settlements are in the range of $35.00 to $75.00. You can file on-line, only takes a minute. I'm going to.
 
Mebbe I shoulda been a lawyer. My take is litigation lawyers keep things running straight. If folks lie, hit 'em in the pocketbook. We don't chop off hands like some countries. Cash penalties hurt worse.
I could, maybe will, write a book on unseen and benign nursing home neglect.
In addition......Oops.....I just came up to the CoC 'do not cross' line. :rolleyes:
BTW, the lawnmower settlements are in the range of $35.00 to $75.00. You can file on-line, only takes a minute. I'm going to.

Frank.. I couldn't disagree more...having a lawyer watch another lawyer is equivalent to the fox guarding the henhouse.. they aren't in it to protect people, they are in it to add to their savings accounts at best, or to persue their own political agenda......period . I have lawyers in my family, on the federal level, and they'd tell you, it's a game to them, see who can beat whom.to see who can be proven "right" by some judge that is oblivious to the common mans' plight in general.... as for lying, tell me that lawyers don't lie, or stretch the truth, to acheive their own agendas... as for the HP rating thing... if they did it in order to charge more, and I mean a LOT more, then that's one thing... if they made a calculation error( which can happen) or if they merely rounded up to the nearest rating, no big deal IMO. besides, whatever penalty that a judge awards will merely be passed on to future purchasers of ALL their merchandise.the company will not take the loss, no company would. I see class actuon lawsuits as mostly frivilous, benefiting the lawyers more than the constituents...
 
Frank.. I couldn't disagree more...having a lawyer watch another lawyer is equivalent to the fox guarding the henhouse.. they aren't in it to protect people, they are in it to add to their savings accounts at best, or to persue their own political agenda......period . I have lawyers in my family, on the federal level, and they'd tell you, it's a game to them, see who can beat whom.to see who can be proven "right" by some judge that is oblivious to the common mans' plight in general.... as for lying, tell me that lawyers don't lie, or stretch the truth, to acheive their own agendas... as for the HP rating thing... if they did it in order to charge more, and I mean a LOT more, then that's one thing... if they made a calculation error( which can happen) or if they merely rounded up to the nearest rating, no big deal IMO. besides, whatever penalty that a judge awards will merely be passed on to future purchasers of ALL their merchandise.the company will not take the loss, no company would. I see class actuon lawsuits as mostly frivilous, benefiting the lawyers more than the constituents...

Well said :thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb::thumb:
 
Frank,

I think you're right. Everyone I know says "Don't trust manufacturer's stated horsepower ratings." We all know this, it almost approaches gospel. In fact, several people on this site can tell you how to calculate 'actual' horsepower (for electric motors, click here).

Imagine the level of corporate cynicism it takes to say "Yeah, I know that motor's only 1 3/4 horsepower, but let's print on the box that it's 2 1/2. And use big red letters!" Anything that gets these big corporations to stop deliberately lying to the people who buy their products has to be a good thing! ;)

Thanks,

Bill
 
Something I've noticed recently while looking at string trimmers, is on websites, there is a disclaimer about the HP rating saying that it was provided by the manufacturer of the engine, not the company building the mower/trimmer. So it sounds like they are trying to distance themselves from the issue.
Thanks for the link Frank. Jim.
 
Frank.. I couldn't disagree more...having a lawyer watch another lawyer is equivalent to the fox guarding the henhouse.. they aren't in it to protect people, they are in it to add to their savings accounts at best, or to persue their own political agenda......period . I have lawyers in my family, on the federal level, and they'd tell you, it's a game to them, see who can beat whom.to see who can be proven "right" by some judge that is oblivious to the common mans' plight in general.... as for lying, tell me that lawyers don't lie, or stretch the truth, to acheive their own agendas... as for the HP rating thing... if they did it in order to charge more, and I mean a LOT more, then that's one thing... if they made a calculation error( which can happen) or if they merely rounded up to the nearest rating, no big deal IMO. besides, whatever penalty that a judge awards will merely be passed on to future purchasers of ALL their merchandise.the company will not take the loss, no company would. I see class actuon lawsuits as mostly frivilous, benefiting the lawyers more than the constituents...
My take is that you want to align people's interest with the interest of the nation and society.

Take our economic system. Each person is out to maximize their profit (or income). That self interest winds up being good for the country and for society. The role of government is to keep the playing field level, so that large companies cannot crush small companies and drive out competition.

The same thing is true (with limits) in our legal system. Attorneys who sue companies for doing things wrong help our country and society. It's not perfect but it works pretty good. Better than what we see in some other countries. Just consider if there was no recourse for things companies did wrong.

Mike
 
My take is that you want to align people's interest with the interest of the nation and society.

Take our economic system. Each person is out to maximize their profit (or income). That self interest winds up being good for the country and for society. The role of government is to keep the playing field level, so that large companies cannot crush small companies and drive out competition.

The same thing is true (with limits) in our legal system. Attorneys who sue companies for doing things wrong help our country and society. It's not perfect but it works pretty good. Better than what we see in some other countries. Just consider if there was no recourse for things companies did wrong.

Mike

Mike, most of those unethical companies( and they are the few) are guided by, guess what..legal advisors. if the feds role is to make the playing field equal, we'd have no WalMart superstores, and more Mom and Pop stores... so according to your interpretation, they have failed. same applies to many other conglomerates in the biz world... the Feds have their hands in too much already, and as a Federal worker, I can tell you, it's NOT in YOUR best interst, or the best interest of the business world. all they want is your tax dollars, and my tax dollars, and about anyone elses' tax dollars to support THEIR agendas.it's easy to see why, if you'd ever seen the patheticness 1st hand. this lawsuit about HP is just another opportunity for shyster lawyers to make a killin', while under the pretense of "safeguarding the consumer".... hogwash.
 
My take is that you want to align people's interest with the interest of the nation and society.

Take our economic system. Each person is out to maximize their profit (or income). That self interest winds up being good for the country and for society. The role of government is to keep the playing field level, so that large companies cannot crush small companies and drive out competition.

The same thing is true (with limits) in our legal system. Attorneys who sue companies for doing things wrong help our country and society. It's not perfect but it works pretty good. Better than what we see in some other countries. Just consider if there was no recourse for things companies did wrong.

Mike

Mike, folks instinctively do not like lawyers and that may be understandable. But, I have to disagree with your premise. Lawyers do get paid for their work. That is pretty basic for any vocation. Widget manufacturers do not make widgets just because they like making widgets. They make widgets to sell for profit.
When folks, or big companies, do wrong what would you suggest as an alternative?
 
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I think you are misunderstanding my posting. What I'm saying is that we all benefit when the interest of the individual aligns with the interest of the nation and society. But that doesn't happen all by itself. Without some correcting force, individuals and companies maximize their gain without regard for the nation and society.

There are many examples of this. Throughout history, nations were ruled by an elite and the common people were suppressed. More recently, the American industries of steel and automobiles went through painful reorganizations, primarily because they became oligopolies and were able to suppress competition. Standard Oil used to go into a market, drop their prices, then when smaller companies went out of business, they would jack up prices.

The correcting force is the laws we have in the United States that attempt to level the market playing field - laws that attempt to restrict the power of individual companies, or a small group of companies, to control markets and eliminate competition.

This leveling of the playing field encourages competition which in turn results in innovation, lower prices, and better products - all of which benefits the country and society.

Is it perfect? No, it's a work in progress and always will be.

I view attorneys who bring cases against companies who do wrong in a similar light. While some may be altruistic, the majority are doing it for their own gain. But their gain is also society's gain, if their actions address real wrongdoing. The problem is balance. We don't want cases brought for insignificant things, but we don't want to make it so difficult to bring a case that nothing can be done to right wrongs.

In either case, economic or legal, the government has an important role, which is to pass laws that balance the competing interests. Since there are competing interest, I doubt if we'll ever be able to all agree, but I think we do a pretty good job as a country. Things get out of whack and when they do, the citizens make their voices heard and generally laws are modified.

Mike
 
Mike, we obviously have different opinions on this subject.
I could debate at length. But, I fear we would tax the limits of our rules here and the tolerance of the mods. Plus, we are seriously digressing from the purpose of the forum.
I'm heading for the hills.
 
Having been involved in a Suit was considered for class action and being friends with one of the Attorneys on the case. He told me bluntly that the only one that wins in a Class Action is the Law Firm.

In a few rare cases the CA will stop an ongoing injustice that needs to be stopped. Most times it is just about the money. This suit fell into that class but the plaintiff would walk away with less in damages if he agreed to go CA. The tag on defendants would get some nominal settlement and the Law Firm would have a huge legal fee's plus their share of the settlement. Often times the plantiff ended up with very very little money after the firms fee's depending on the agreement. Some walked away with nothing!

They have accounting down to a science. For example, when you made a copy you had to enter the job it was for so they charge the cost of each copy to the clients job! No joke!

He was very honest and showed me what to expect. The law firm (not the lawyers) were the real winners and this case didn't go class action. While I think lawyers do serve an important function and are needed. I think there is just to many of them and that leads to creating work.
 
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