Judge Blasts Lawyer As “Professional Objector”

Corpus Christi, Texas lawyer Christopher Bandas has been called a professional objector, and his behavior during a recent class-action “has been, at best, unprofessional, and at worst, an unseemly effort to extract fees from class counsel in exchange for the withdrawal of a meritless objection to the proposed class settlement,” said U.S. District Judge Valerie Caproni. Bandas filed an objection to a recent decision in a class action over Major League Baseball Internet TV packages. He claimed to be filing for a client who was a class member who had timely filed a claim – though there was no procedure for filing a claim in the case – and argued the settlement wasn’t adequate because it didn’t provide for monetary damages, though the case had been certified for class action for injunctive relief only. Caproni called the objection frivolous. “This court joins other courts throughout the country in finding that Bandas has orchestrated the filing of a frivolous objection in an attempt to throw a monkey wrench into the settlement process and to extort a pay-off,” Caproni said.