Plaintiffs Reach Deal in Dollar Thrifty Insurance Class Action Lawsuit

A long-running class action lawsuit alleging Dollar Thrifty duped consumers into purchasing unneeded insurance has finally come to an end with plaintiffs agreeing to settle the claims and drop the suit.

Court documents filed February 21 by the parties to the class action lawsuit did not include the terms of the settlement agreement. Dollar Thrifty and the plaintiffs told U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers that they had reviewed several drafts of the agreement, however, and were coming to a final decision.

“Each party hereby stipulates that all of the individual Plaintiffs’ claims against Defendants in the above-entitled action are voluntarily dismissed with prejudice…with each party to bear its own costs,” said the stipulation signed by representatives for both parties to the judge.

After alleging that Dollar Thrifty tricked rental car customers into buying add-on insurance and other unnecessary services, the plaintiffs lost their motion to certify their proposed class several months ago. Dollar Thrifty had been hit with two other lawsuits over the alleged sale of unnecessary insurance.

Judge Gonzalez Rogers rejected the plaintiffs’ motion to certify the class because the lead plaintiffs did not represent the proposed class adequately. Additionally, the judge found that the plaintiffs proposed class was too broad. The plaintiffs’ proposed class consisted of rental car customers who purchased extra insurance because they weren’t warned by a sign or other posting about coverage they might already have.

In their initial class action complaint filed in 2012, the plaintiffs alleged that several airport locations of Dollar Thrifty mislead rental car customers into purchasing additional insurance that they potentially already had coverage for under different policies. The plaintiffs alleged that Dollar Thrifty should have warned customers that their auto insurance policies and credit cards sometimes provide protection plans for rental cars.

According to the plaintiffs, Dollar Thrifty representatives charged them for liability insurance even after they told them they did not want it. In their class action, the plaintiffs alleged that it was common practice for Dollar Thrifty representatives to use an electronic signature to indicate that customers wanted liability insurance, when, in fact, the customers had indicated on a touch screen that they did not want the insurance.

The class action plaintiffs also claimed that Dollar Thrifty representatives were threatened with disciplinary action if they did not make 30 “upsells” a day, leading to the alleged trickery and fraud.

The plaintiffs alleged that Dollar Thrifty violated California’s Unfair Competition Law and the state Consumer Legal Remedies Act.

The class action had been amended at four separate occasions and another federal judge had denied the plaintiffs’ bid for class certification several years earlier.

The drivers are represented by Alan M. Mansfield, Joe R. Whatley Jr. and Patrick Sheehan of Whatley Kallas LLP.

The Dollar Car Rental Insurance Class Action Lawsuit is McKinnon v. Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group Inc., Case No.4:12-cv-04457, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.