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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
I really need to get in on this law suit. How can I do it? They have raped me for years.
I would like to know how to join this class action lawsuit.I have unathurized transactions that cause overdrafting.
Please help!
My partner and I own a cafe in WA. state- banking with Wells Fargo was a huge and expensive miscalculation on our part. Its hard enough for small businesses to stay afloat in this challenged economy without crooks like Wells Fargo mishandling our funds. How do we get in on this class action suit? We would love to help bring these criminals to justice….
charging for fees from Wells Fargo bank out of town by their own ATM charges to my checking account which is a Wells fargo fee $37.50 plus $2.50 there was 19 of these used a ATM twice. Charges for them holding my money in my own checking account which seems to be changing everytime I receive a bank statement the fees are different. Want to know do they still have a class action lawsuit
Where do I file a claim for the wellsfaro bank class action lawsuit settlement
How do I join this lawsuit
I want to be on this law suit also let me know how
We have the same problem. Just saw a notice for Harris Bank in the paper. Why hasn’t there been one for filing with Wells Fargo.
Help I have the same issue…
how do i join this lawsuit settlement