Email to Judge Benton

From: RDShatt
To: laura.dorris@kingcounty.gov
CC: steve@hbsslaw.com, jkaren@jonesday.com
Sent: 8/29/2009 11:52:09 A.M. Central Daylight Time
Subj: In re EXPEDIA HOTEL TAXES AND FEES LITIGATION (Judge Benton)

Dear Judge Benton,

I don't know if the bailiff will pass this email along to you. I hope the bailiff does, but that is the bailiff's call to make and not mine.

I have received notice as a purported member of the plaintiff class, but I am writing this email more as a citizen who has strong beliefs that class action lawsuits such as this Expedia litigation, on balance, ill serve important societal interests, they do not contribute positively to advancing relevant societal interests in a way that justifies them, and such litigation should be prevented from occurring.

Whether I, as a member of the plaintiff class, will actually file an objection with the court is something I will decide later. In the meantime I am copying this email to counsel for the plaintiffs and counsel for the defendant (the plaintiffs' law firm does not appear to provide email addresses for its individual attorneys and I am using this general contact email address steve@hbsslaw.com for the plaintiff firm that appears on its website and hopefully the email will be passed on to Mr. Volk).

One of the reasons I believe this sort of class action litigation ill serves important societal interests is that I believe the litigation undermines corporate business ethics. My argumentation in support of this contention is set forth at length in this online article of mine: Does the Civil Liability System Undermine Business Ethics? I hope you will take a look at that article and see what you think.

For your information, I expect to be taking other steps to express my citizen's disapproval of this litigation, and I will be indicating my actions in this Section J8 of my blog How To Combat Plaintiffs' Lawyers.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Robert Shattuck