$90 Million Settlement Announced In PNC Bank Overdraft Fee Class Action
CORAL GABLES, Fla., June 26, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- PNC Bank has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a class action lawsuit which accused the bank of improperly manipulating its customers' debit card transactions in order to generate excess overdraft fee revenues. The lawsuit, part of multidistrict litigation involving more than 30 different banks entitled In re Checking Account Overdraft Litigation, is pending before U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King in Miami.
The lawsuit claims that PNC Bank's internal computer system re-sequenced the actual order of its customers' debit card and ATM transactions, by posting them in highest-to-lowest dollar amount rather than in the actual order in which they were initiated by customers and authorized by the bank. According to the lawsuit, PNC Bank's practice resulted in its customers being charged substantially more in overdraft fees than if the debit card and ATM transactions had been posted in the order in which they were initiated and authorized.
"This is an outstanding recovery. We are extremely pleased to have achieved this result for PNC's customers who were adversely affected by this anti-consumer practice," said Robert C. Gilbert. Gilbert expects the settlement with PNC Bank to be presented to the Court for preliminary approval later this summer. As Plaintiffs' Coordinating Counsel, Gilbert oversees and manages all of the cases in this multidistrict litigation proceeding together with Plaintiffs' Co-Lead Counsel Aaron S. Podhurst and Bruce S. Rogow.
PNC Bank is not the first bank involved in this multidistrict litigation to settle similar claims. In addition to a $410 million settlement with Bank of America approved last year, settlements with JPMorgan Chase Bank, Citizens Bank and TD Bank have been announced in recent months.
In addition to Gilbert, the principal lawyers involved in the PNC Bank case are David M. Buckner and Seth E. Miles of Grossman Roth in Miami, and Adam Webb and Matt Klase of Webb Klase & Lemond in Atlanta.
Grossman Roth, P.A. was founded in Miami in 1988 and also maintains offices in Ft. Lauderdale, Boca Raton, Sarasota and Key West. The firm concentrates its practice in the areas of class actions and complex commercial litigation, catastrophic personal injury, products liability, aviation, professional malpractice and other cases involving significant economic or physical damages.
SOURCE Grossman Roth, P.A.
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