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Wells Fargo Loses Bid to Dismiss Overdraft Fee Class Action Lawsuit
By Matt O’Donnell
Wells Fargo lost a bid to force customers into arbitration who are suing the bank for improper overdraft fees. The decision is a big win for Wells Fargo customers seeking refunds through a massive class action lawsuit known as In Re: Checking Account Overdraft Litigation.
Wells Fargo is just one of more than 30 banks involved in the consolidated case, which includes dozens of class action lawsuits accusing banks of reordering overdrafts to maximize fees. Many of the banks have already settled their portion of the case, including Bank of America, JPMorgan & Chase and U.S. Bank.
Wells Fargo attempted to get out of the class action lawsuit by trying to enforce a mandatory arbitration agreement it has with customers. A federal appeals court denied the request on Friday, however, ruling the bank can’t force arbitration after waiving its right to do so twice.
The court found that Wells Fargo asserted its right to force customers into arbitration after already putting them through a lengthy litigation process that lasted for years and yielded about 900,000 documents. Wells Fargo declined a trial court’s offer to arbitrate disputes in November 2009 and April 2010, and filed a motion to dismiss the class action lawsuit only after the Supreme Court ruled in April 2012 that federal law allows companies to force customers and employees to arbitrate claims individually.
Before the Supreme Court ruling, some state laws made arbitration clauses that contained class-action waivers unenforceable.
The motion to compel arbitration came too late, the court said, and would force Plaintiffs to “suffer substantial prejudice.”
The Wells Fargo Overdraft Fee Class Action Lawsuit case is In re Checking Account Overdraft Litigation, Case No. 09-md-02036, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (Miami).
Updated October 30th, 2012
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38 thoughts onWells Fargo Loses Bid to Dismiss Overdraft Fee Class Action Lawsuit
Where can I file a claim because this company is literally raping my direct deposit from my job. I am upset and aggrivated. I seem to still get a overdraft fee even when I have the funds jn my account HELP!!!!!!!!
How do I join this lawsuit against Wells Fargo? Because of the $800-$1200 in over draft fees over a 3 month period in 2010, Chex Systems has made it impossible to to open up a new bank account because they say I owe Wells $850 ALL FROM OVER DRAFT FEES! Help
Hi,
Is it too late to join the class action suit against Wells Fargo?
Please advise.
Thanks!
Jenny
I would also like to know where can I join. I can’t say how many thousands of dollars they took from me between the years of 2001 and 2010! There were several times they jacked me around on little bitty charges I had made with my debit card and rearranged them to post after a larger amount went through so that I ended up having 10 or more overdrafts instead of one. And then not only did they charge me an over draft fee for each one they also threw in some other charge for the same thing that doubled the amount I had to pay. There were several paycchecks I got where they took almost the entire amount of nearly $1000 in direct deposit. NO warning because they wouldn’t post it until my deposit came in and I would only receive notification a couple of days later which by that time I had spent $ that I thought should ve been in my account and so started the whole thing over again and it got to be a vicious cycle with them keeping tons of my $
I am also interested in joining this lawsuit. I recently received a letter stating I owe over $1200 in overdraft fees on an account that was closed in 2007
wHO DO I CONTACT TO BE INCLUDED ION THIS LAWSUIT.
I was with them just a few years ago. I called and asked them to close my account and they refused and kept giving me overdraft fees till I recieved a bill for over $300…this wasn’t right when I asked them to please close the account.
I am one of the filers on this law suit against Wells Fargo.
But, I have since moved and would like to know whom to contact to update my information. Thank you for your help in this matter.
How would I find out the dates of this Wells Fargo lawsuit? I was with them 20 years ago & the reason I quit being with them was because of the overdraft charges. I have Googled online, but I guess I am not looking at the right things or searching for the right things, because I cannot find out how far back this goes. I can remember that I paid them well over $300 in overdraft fees… Thank you for all you do & without your help, I wouldn’t know 1% of things that are going on in the courts. Leonard R Cannon Jr, Phoenix, Az 85020
Where do I file a claim for the wellsfaro bank class action lawsuit settlement
where do I file acclaim for wells fargo overdraft class action suit