Harry Dennis v. Stephanie Berg

ORDER

The Opinion filed July 13, 2012, slip op. 8109, and appearing at 687 F.3d 1149 (9th Cir.2012), is withdrawn. It may not be cited as precedent by or to this court or any district court of the Ninth Circuit.

With the Opinion withdrawn, the Plaintiffs-Appellees’ petition for rehearing and petition for rehearing en banc are moot. The parties may file a petition for rehearing or a petition for rehearing en banc regarding the Opinion filed concurrently with this Order.

OPINION

Most cases in our judicial system never make it to trial. Litigants often find it advantageous to secure a resolution more quickly by settling the case and negotiating a result the parties can tolerate, even though neither side can call it a total win. Normally, that is the end of the story, and the parties walk away — not entirely happy, but not entirely unhappy either.

In a class action, however, any settlement must be approved by the court to ensure that class counsel and the named plaintiffs do not place their own interests above those of the absent class members. In this false advertising case, we confront a class action settlement, negotiated prior to class certification, that includes cy pres…