CLASS ACTION/MASS TORTS

Mason Pertnoy and Richard Allen

Solowsky & Allen

Gary Mansfield and David Stone

Mansfield, Bronstein & Stone

Members of the Fort Lauderdale-based JetSmarter Inc. private jet-sharing service weren't happy when they say their terms of membership started changing and new fees were added.

Attorneys at Solowsky & Allen in Miami and Mansfield, Bronstein & Stone in Fort Lauderdale served a demand letter on the company and a draft class action complaint on behalf of the company's 12,000-plus members.

JetSmarter agreed to class certification, amended its membership agreement and eliminated a provision barring class actions. Mediation followed a class arbitration filing, and an agreement was reached in March 2019. The settlement attracted an above-average rate of claims.

Members received $3.13 million in cash and $200 million in flight credits and membership extensions. Less than a year passed between the arbitration filing and final judgment.

Describe a key piece of testimony, evidence, ruling or order in your case and how it influenced the outcome: The key to our successful outcome was twofold. A tremendous amount of effort went into collecting emails, advertisements, news articles and class member statements in order to prepare a high-level, detailed complaint, which told a compelling story of defendant's wrongdoing. The research included finding a critical admission from the defendant in an online interview which directly contradicted email solicitations the defendant made to class members in the same time frame. This evidence went to the heart of the allegations of defendant's wrongdoing.

In addition, we developed a novel legal approach to circumventing the defendant's class action prohibition clause in the membership agreement. This led to defendant agreeing to amend its membership agreement to waive the class action prohibition clause and agreeing to certify the prospective class. The parties' agreement saved class members years of litigation, thousands of dollars in litigation fees and costs and ultimately allowed the parties to focus on reaching a commonsense resolution. Collection of critical pieces of evidence in preparation of the complaint coupled with sound and creative legal strategies allowed class members to obtain substantial redress nearly a year after suffering their damages.