“The biggest benefit is that First Class, Inc.
handles the administrative aspects of the settlement. Most
insurance companies would probably not pay an attorney his hourly
rate to keep track of mail returns, and most insurers would
probably not pay for a paralegal to do the same thing.
From our standpoint, all of these services are
included in your rate, so they are essentially "invisible" on the
bill, whereas the charges for the same services would be quite
prominent on our bills if we had to do them in-house.”
“The most important value of using First
Class, Inc. is that you understand the legal importance of class
mailings and are more responsive to the needs of attorneys than
some general purpose mailer.”
“First Class has extensive experience in dealing
with class action mailings, which requires knowledge and an
ability to comply with various court ordered tasks. First Class
also demonstrates excellent turn-around on projects and
inquiries.”
“We have never used a general purpose mailing
firm, as far as I know. In view of a lawyer's potential liability
for screwing up a class settlement, it is important to have a high
comfort level with the agency responsible for mailings. It is
possible that class members can attempt to challenge the
settlement, and there are no better grounds than improper or
non-existent notice.”
“The ability of First Class to track mailings, and
especially the lists generated of class members and the
corresponding check number, provides an additional level of
security.” “. . . the "hassle" factor is also important.
As you know, we never put {firm’s name withheld}
phone number on the mailings or the checks, yet we still get a
substantial volume of (nonbillable) phone calls. If First Class
were not involved, someone at the firm would have to field all
calls. This would result in a tremendous waste of time which could
be spent billing.”
“As for your rates, I doubt that too many law
firms could arrange for copying and mailing of notices, monitoring
returns, and cutting checks at the same rate as First Class
charges. Some of our debt collector clients who have high-volume
printing and envelope stuffing capacity may be able to do so, but
then there is the hassle factor as well.”
