102 Litigating CA Wage & Hour and Labor Code Class Actions (22nd Edition) Seyfarth Shaw LLP | www.seyfarth.com approved if the value of the specific coupon settlement is “reasonable in relation to the value of the claim surrendered.”628 Settling parties must also be careful to avoid conditioning incentive awards to class representatives on their acceptance of the settlement. In Radcliffe v. Experian Info Solutions, the Ninth Circuit determined that class counsel and class representatives were inadequate where a settlement conditioned the provision of incentive awards to class representatives on the representatives’ approval of the settlement.629 The Ninth Circuit reasoned that this condition “corrupted” the settlement by motivating the class representatives to support a possibly unfair settlement in exchange for the award, as opposed to seeking a fair settlement for the entire class.630 Settlements may also not be approved if any class member is forced to pay an amount to class counsel that would result in a net loss to the class member, unless the court makes a written finding that the benefits substantially outweigh the loss.631 Finally, the court will not approve a settlement that provides for a payment to some class members that is more than the payment to others solely due to their geographic proximity to the court.632 CAFA also contains specific requirements regarding the issuance of class settlement notifications.633 CAFA requires defendants to serve a notice of the proposed settlement agreement on (1) the “appropriate federal official” and (2) the “appropriate state official.”634 The notice must include the complaint, notices of scheduled judicial hearings, proposed or final notification to class members of rights to request for exclusion, and any proposed class action settlement, among other papers.635 This notice must be served “not later than 10 days after a proposed settlement of a class action is filed in court.”636 The notice also affects final approval of the settlement: ”[a]n order giving final approval of a proposed settlement may not be issued earlier than 90 days after the later of the dates on which the appropriate Federal official and the appropriate State official are served with the notice.”637 628 Id. 629 Radcliffe v. Experian Info. Solutions, 715 F.3d 1157 (9th Cir. 2013). 630 Id. at 1164. The Ninth Circuit went on to explain that a large disparity between the incentive award and the payments to the rest of the class members “exacerbated the conflict.” Id. at 1165. 631 See 28 U.S.C. § 1713. 632 See 28 U.S.C. § 1714. 633 See 28 U.S.C. § 1715. 634 See id. § 1715(a). 635 See id. § 1715(b). 636 See id. § 1715(b). 637 See id. § 1715(d).
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