LEGAL NOTICE BY ORDER OF THE COURT

Transcription

1 LEGAL NOTICE BY ORDER OF THE COURT IF YOU USED A CHECK PROVIDED BY CAPITAL ONE TO TRANSFER A BALANCE ON YOUR CAPITAL ONE CREDIT CARD ACCOUNT IN APRIL OR MAY 2009, YOU MAY BE ENTITLED TO BENEFITS UNDER THE SETTLEMENT DESCRIBED BELOW. A court authorized this Notice. This is not a solicitation from a lawyer. The United States District Court for the Central District of California has granted preliminary approval to a class action settlement in a lawsuit against Capital One. In the lawsuit, plaintiff alleges that Capital One sent a balance transfer offer in April 2009 offering a 0% interest rate for life on the transferred balance and did not honor the offer terms and that Capital One s notice revoking that offer made in error due to a printing mistake was not effective to amend the terms of the offer. The settlement, if granted final approval, will allow each eligible Class Member to recover some portion of the finance charges assessed on the transferred balance and it releases Capital One from any further liability for the legal claims raised in this lawsuit. Your legal rights will be affected by this settlement whether or not you take any action in response to it. Read this notice carefully. YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS AND OPTIONS IN THIS SETTLEMENT DO NOTHING EXCLUDE YOURSELF OBJECT OR GO TO A HEARING Become a Final Settlement Class Member who may be entitled to a check as long as your account is current, as defined in #4 below. Get no credit or payment. This option allows you to sue Capital One on your own or to be included in another lawsuit regarding the legal claims at issue in this case. Write to the Court about why you don t like the settlement or ask to speak in Court about the fairness of the settlement. These rights and options and the deadlines to exercise them are explained in this Notice. The Court still has to decide whether to grant final approval to the settlement. Payments will be made only if the Court grants final approval to the settlement and any appeals are resolved. Please be patient. 1

2 1. WHY DID I GET THIS NOTICE? BASIC INFORMATION According to Capital One s records, you have or had a Capital One credit card account, you accepted a balance transfer offer in April or May of 2009 which erroneously offered a 0% for life interest rate on the transferred balance after Capital One notified you of the mistake in the interest rate, and you did not receive a 0% interest rate for the life of the transferred balance. In addition, your account is current as defined in #4 below as of a date after the Court granted preliminary approval and before this notice was mailed. 2. WHAT IS THIS LAWSUIT ABOUT? The lawsuit claimed that Capital One breached a contract with Settlement Class Members (as defined in #4 below) by offering a 0% interest rate for the life of the transferred balance and not honoring that interest rate. Capital One denies all allegations of wrongdoing and contends that it honored the amended interest rate term offered in its notice advising customers that the interest rate term in the balance transfer offer was a mistake caused by a printing error and replacing the offer with the corrected 0% interest rate for six months term. 3. WHY IS THERE A SETTLEMENT? The Court has not decided in favor of Plaintiff or Capital One. Instead, both sides agreed to a settlement. That way, they avoid the cost and uncertainty of a trial and related appeals, while providing benefits to members of the Settlement Class. The Class Representative and the attorneys think the settlement is best for all Settlement Class Members. The Court in charge of this lawsuit has granted preliminary approval of this settlement and ordered this notice be mailed to explain it. 4. HOW DO I KNOW IF I AM PART OF THE SETTLEMENT? The Court decided that everyone who meets the following description is a Settlement Class Member: All natural persons who have or had Capital One credit card accounts whose accounts are current, meaning they are not charged off or in bankruptcy status as of the Effective Date, who used one of the blue access checks attached to Offer or Offer to transfer a balance to their Capital One account, and who received a 0% interest rate for six months on the transferred balance. NOTE: If your account is not current, meaning it is charged off or in bankruptcy status as of the Effective Date, which is after any appeals have been resolved or 35 days after all appeals have been waived, you will be excluded from the Class and will not share in the distribution. However, you will retain the option to be part of any other lawsuit against Capital One that involves the legal claims at issue in this case. 5. WHAT DOES THE SETTLEMENT PROVIDE? Under the settlement, Capital One will pay a total of $350,000 to settlement class members and the lawyers for the class ( Settlement Payment ). In addition, the Class Representative will ask 2

3 the Court to award him a service award consisting of a $2,000 payment, reduction of the balance on his Capital One credit card account to $0; and a request for deletion of the negative trade line information for his account. The Court will determine how much will be paid to the lawyers. The amount remaining will be paid to the Final Settlement Class Members (the Merits Amount ). Capital One has estimated the finance charges paid by the Settlement Class on the transferred balances. Each Final Settlement Class Member will receive the Benefit Amount, which equals the Final Settlement Class Member s transferred balance amount multiplied by the Benefit Percentage. The Benefit Percentage will be determined by dividing the Merits Amount by the total amount of balances transferred by Final Settlement Class Members. Final Settlement Class Members who are account holders on the same Qualified Account are entitled to receive one Benefit Amount. The parties expect that the Benefit Amount will be about 39% of the estimated finance charges paid by the Settlement Class on the transferred balance. Individual payment amounts could be more or less than these figures. 6. IF I DO NOT OPT OUT, WHEN WOULD I GET MY CREDIT OR PAYMENT? The Court will hold a hearing on April 21, 2016 to decide whether to grant final approval to the settlement. If the Court grants final approval to the settlement, there may be appeals. It s always uncertain how long it will take to resolve any appeals. Please be patient. Payments will be made within approximately 45 days after any appeals have been resolved or all appeals have been waived. 7. WHAT AM I AGREEING TO BY REMAINING IN THE CLASS? Unless you exclude yourself, you will be part of the Final Settlement Class, and that means that you can t sue, continue to sue, or be part of any other lawsuit against Capital One about the legal issues in this case. It also means that the Court s Orders in this case will apply to you and legally bind you. If you do not exclude yourself, you will agree to a Release of Claims, listed below, which describes exactly the legal claims that you give up if you do not exclude yourself: Release of Legal Claims Upon entry of the Final Judgment, the Class Representative, each Final Settlement Class Member and all those who claim through them or who assert claims on their behalf (including the government in its capacity as parens patriae) (collectively, the Releasing Parties ), will be deemed to have completely released and forever discharged the Released Parties, and each of them, from any claim, right, demand, charge, complaint, action, cause of action, obligation, or liability for actual or statutory damages, punitive damages, restitution or other monetary relief of any and every kind, including, without limitation, those based on breach of contract or violation of any other federal, state, or local law, statute, regulation, or common law, whether known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, under the law of any jurisdiction, which the Class Representative or any Final Settlement Class Member ever had, now has or may have in the future that relates to or arises out of any or all of the acts, omissions, facts, matters, transactions, or occurrences that were directly or indirectly alleged, asserted, or referred to in the Action. However, this paragraph does not release Capital One from its obligations under this Agreement. For purposes of these releases, unknown claims means claims that the Releasing Parties do not know or suspect to exist in their favor at the time of their granting a release, which if known by them might have affected their settlement of the Action. It is the intention of the Parties and the 3

4 Settlement Class Members that, upon the Effective Date, each of the Releasing Parties shall be deemed to have, and by operation of the Final Judgment shall have, expressly waived and relinquished, to the fullest extent permitted (a) by section 1542 of the California Civil Code, or (b) by any law of any state or territory of the United States, federal law, or principle of common law which is similar, comparable, or equivalent to section 1542 of the California Civil Code, the provisions, rights and benefits of any statute or law which might otherwise render a general release unenforceable with respect to unknown claims. Section 1542 of the California Civil Code reads: Section General Release, extent. A general release does not extend to claims which the creditor does not know or suspect to exist in his favor at the time of executing the release, which if known by him must have materially affected his settlement with the debtor. The Releasing Parties shall be deemed to have acknowledged, and by operation of the Final Judgment acknowledge, that they are aware that they may hereafter discover facts other than or different from those that they know or believe to be true with respect to the subject matter of the Released Claims, but it is their intention to, and each of them shall be deemed upon the Effective Date to have, waived and fully, finally, and forever settled and released any and all Released Claims, whether known or unknown, suspected or unsuspected, asserted or unasserted, contingent or non-contingent, whether or not concealed or hidden, without regard to the subsequent discovery or existence of such different or additional facts. EXCLUDING YOURSELF FROM THE SETTLEMENT If you want to keep the right to sue or continue to sue Capital One, on your own, about the legal issues in this case, then you must exclude yourself. If you exclude yourself, as set forth below, you will not be eligible to make a claim for payment from this Settlement. Excluding yourself is sometimes referred to as opting out of the Settlement Class. 8. HOW DO I EXCLUDE MYSELF FROM THE SETTLEMENT? To exclude yourself from this settlement, you must send a letter by mail saying that you want to be excluded. To be valid, your exclusion request must include: (1) the name of this lawsuit, Dapice v. Capital One; (2) your full name, address, and telephone number; (3) a statement that you wish to exclude yourself from the settlement; and (4) your signature. You must mail your exclusion request to the following address so that it is postmarked no later than March 15, 2016: Balance Transfer Settlement Exclusions, P.O. Box 25255, Richmond, VA, REQUESTS FOR EXCLUSION THAT ARE NOT POSTMARKED ON OR BEFORE MARCH 15, 2016 WILL NOT BE HONORED. You can t exclude yourself by telephone or by . You can't exclude yourself by mailing a request to any other location or after the deadline. Your exclusion letter must be signed by you. You can't exclude yourself by having an actual or purported agent or attorney acting on behalf of you or a group of Settlement Class Members sign the letter. 4

5 9. IF I DON T EXCLUDE MYSELF, CAN I SUE CAPITAL ONE FOR THE SAME THING LATER? No. If the settlement is granted final approval, and you don't exclude yourself, you give up any right to sue Capital One for relief arising from the claims that this settlement resolves. If you have a pending lawsuit against Capital One, speak to your lawyer in that case immediately. You may need to exclude yourself from this Class to continue your own lawsuit. 10. IF I EXCLUDE MYSELF, CAN I STILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CREDIT OR PAYMENT? No. If you exclude yourself, you are no longer eligible to receive a payment. But, you may sue, continue to sue, or be part of a different lawsuit against Capital One (if any). 11. Do I Have A Lawyer In This Case? THE LAWYERS REPRESENTING YOU The Class Representative retained the following law firm to represent him: Packard LLP. Kirtland & In connection with the preliminary approval of the settlement, the Court appointed this firm to represent you and the other Class Members. This law firm is called Class Counsel. You will not be charged by these lawyers for their work on the case. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer, you may hire one at your own expense. 12. HOW WILL THE LAWYERS FEES, NOTICE COSTS, AND ADMINISTRATIVE FEES BE PAID? Class Counsel will ask the Court for attorney s fees and litigation expenses of 25 percent of the Settlement Payment. The attorney s fee and expense award will be paid out of the Settlement Payment, defined in #5 above. Capital One will also pay the costs of notifying the class members of the settlement and of administering the settlement process and will pay or administer any service award authorized by the Court to the Class Representative for his service to the Settlement Class. These notice costs and the costs of any service award will be paid in addition to the settlement proceeds to Final Settlement Class Members, and will not reduce or affect any Final Settlement Class Members recovery under the settlement. The Class Representative and Class Counsel will make their requests to the Court for attorney s fees and costs and a service award on or before January 25, These requests will be available on the Settlement Website or you can request a copy by contacting the Settlement Administrator. OBJECTING TO THE SETTLEMENT 13. HOW DO I TELL THE COURT THAT I DON T LIKE THE SETTLEMENT? If you re a Settlement Class Member, you can object to the settlement if you don t think it is fair, reasonable or adequate. You can give reasons why you think the Court should not approve it. The Court will consider your views. To object, you must send a letter by mail saying that you object to the settlement or file the objection with the Court using the ECF system. Be sure to 5

6 include (1) the name of this lawsuit, Dapice v. Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., 14-CV-6961-GW (AGRx); (2) your name, address, telephone number; (3) the reasons you object to the settlement; (4) any evidence or other information you wish to introduce in support of your objection; (5) a statement of whether you or your counsel intend to appear at the Fairness Hearing; and (6) your signature. Any objections filed using the ECF system must be filed by March 15, If you mail your objection, you must mail it to the following three different places so it is postmarked no later than March 15, 2016: The Court Class Counsel Defense Counsel Behram V. Parekh Kirtland & Packard LLP 2041 Rosecrans Avenue 3rd Floor El Segundo, CA Clerk of the Court United States District Court Central District of California 312 N. Spring Street Los Angeles, CA Nancy R. Thomas Morrison & Foerster LLP 707 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA Unless you file the objection using the ECF system, you also must file a Proof of Service with the Court stating that you mailed or delivered copies of these papers to Class and Defense Counsel. 14. WHAT S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN OBJECTING AND EXCLUDING? Objecting is simply telling the Court that you don t like something about the settlement. You can object only if you stay in the Settlement Class. Excluding yourself is telling the Court that you don t want to be included in the settlement. If you exclude yourself, you have no basis to object because the settlement no longer affects you. THE COURT S FAIRNESS HEARING The Court will hold a public hearing to decide whether to grant final approval to the settlement. You may attend the hearing, but you don t have to. 15. WHEN AND WHERE WILL THE COURT DECIDE WHETHER TO APPROVE THE SETTLEMENT? The Court will hold the Fairness Hearing at 8:30 a.m. on April 21, 2016, at the United States District Court for the Central District of California, 312 North Spring Street, Courtroom 10, Los Angeles, California At this hearing, the Court will consider whether the settlement is fair, reasonable, and adequate. If there are objections, the Court will consider them. The Court will listen to people who appear at the hearing. The Court may also rule on Class Counsel s request for attorney s fees and expenses and the Settlement Class Representative s request for a service award. After the hearing, the Court will decide whether to approve the settlement. We do not know how long these decisions will take. 16. DO I HAVE TO COME TO THE HEARING? No. Class Counsel will answer questions the Court may have. But, you are welcome to come at your own expense. If you send an objection, you don t have to come to Court to talk about it. As long as you mailed your written objection on time, the Court will consider it. You may also pay your own lawyer to attend, but it s not necessary. 6

7 IF YOU DO NOTHING 17. WHAT HAPPENS IF I DO NOTHING AT ALL? Unless you exclude yourself, you will become a Final Settlement Class Member, you may be eligible to receive a payment, and you will be bound by the terms and conditions of the settlement. If the settlement is approved, the claims against Capital One will be released. This means you won t be able to start a lawsuit, continue with a lawsuit, or be part of any other lawsuit against Capital One about the issues in this case. GETTING MORE INFORMATION 18. ARE THERE MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE SETTLEMENT? This notice summarizes the settlement. More details, including definitions of all capitalized terms in this Notice, are in a Settlement Agreement. You can get a copy of the Settlement Agreement by writing to the Capital One Balance Transfer Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 25255, Richmond, VA , or at which also contains other important Court filings. Class Counsel can also provide you with additional information. You can contact Class Counsel at: Behram V. Parekh, Kirtland & Packard LLP, 2041 Rosecrans Avenue, 3rd Floor, El Segundo, CA, 90245, (310) Note: Do not call or write the Court or the Court Clerk s office for more information. 7