Off-topic post: BAR/BRI antitrust class action settlement

Many readers of this blog may be members of the settlement class in the BAR/BRI antitrust case, Rodriguez v. West Publishing Corp. I received this email from class counsel:

In the past, we have had the opportunity to discuss the BAR/BRI litigation. I wanted to provide you a quick update, as many of the readers of your blog are likely class members.

On March 26, 2007, the United States District Court for the Central District of California preliminarily approved a proposed Settlement in this matter. The proposed Settlement provides monetary relief in the amount of $49 million dollars and non-monetary relief that will promote competition in the bar review market. This action arose from allegations that BAR/BRI violated the federal antitrust laws by agreeing with Kaplan, Inc. to prevent competition in the market for full-service bar review courses. The action represents a significant recovery of the damages suffered by the class. The certified class consists of all persons who purchased a full-service bar review course from BAR/BRI anywhere in the United States anytime from August 1, 1997 through July 31, 2006. Class members have until September 17, 2007 to submit their proof of claim.

Please go to www.barbri-classaction.com for more information about the proposed settlement. Additionally, Notice of the Proposed Settlement is available http://www.barbri-classaction.com/barbri/docs/barbri%20Notice.pdf. Claim forms are available at: http://www.barbri-classaction.com/barbri/docs/barbri%20Claim%20Form.pdf.

UPDATE: Thanks to the reader who pointed out that the link to the Claim form was bad. The link has been fixed and now works.