An attempt by a law firm to convince authors to opt out of the $1.5 billion class action settlement reached with Anthropic met with fierce resistance by presiding judge William Alsup in a November 13 hearing.
ClaimsHero, which bills itself as a “consumer justice platform” and law firm, launched a publicity campaign to persuade authors not to agree to the terms reached in the Bartz et al. v. Anthropic class action lawsuit in which authors are due to receive $3,000 for each work of theirs that was included in the class action. ClaimsHero is claiming that if authors opt out, they may be able win a bigger payout in the case.
In a report on the hearing filed by Bloomberg, Alsup called ClaimsHero’s actions “a fraud of immense proportions” and told the company to alter its “misleading” communications. The hearing came after authors who are part of the lawsuit filed a motion seeking an order to stop ClaimsHero from trying to lure authors to opt out.
As part of its campaign, ClaimsHero launched a website dedicated to the Anthropic case in which it acknowledges it is “not affiliated with either Class Counsel or the Settlement Administrator—ClaimsHero is Only Representing Authors and Rightsholders seeking to Opt Out of the Anthropic Settlement.” Judge Alsup ordered ClaimsHero to make some changes to the site within 48 hours, including an acknowledgment that ClaimsHero has no experience litigating in federal or state court, according to the Bloomberg report.
Attorneys for ClaimsHero denied that the company is trying to mislead anyone and is acting in good faith to try to earn a larger payout for authors.
Judge Alsup was firm in his belief that since ClaimsHero has no substantive track record in litigation it was misleading to claim it could take on Anthropic. The Bloomberg story also quoted Alsup as calling ClaimsHero marketing efforts “propaganda.”
An evidentiary hearing is scheduled for November 25 for the court to question authors who have signed up for ClaimsHero’s services.
