The Remington 700 Settlement--Not A Done Deal

CNBC, in an article entitled "Judge approves massive Remington rifle fix," reports that "[a] federal judge in Kansas City, Missouri, has given preliminary approval to a massive class-action settlement involving millions of allegedly defective Remington rifles that were the subject of a CNBC documentary."

The case is Pollard v. Remington Arms Co., LLC (W.D. Mo. No. 13-86-CV-W-ODS), and is based on allegations that the trigger in Remington rifles are defective because the design allows debris and other foreign material to slip between the trigger and the trigger connector making the rifles susceptible to accidental discharge without a trigger pull.

I haven't been able to find a copy of the opinion to which the article refers, but the article indicates that "[u]nder the settlement, which is still subject to final approval later this year, Remington will offer to replace the trigger systems, free of charge, on more than 7 million of its bolt-action rifles." (Underline added). Part of the reason that approval of the settlement is delayed is because the judge was not pleased that older rifles were not subject to the recall, and the owners of those rifles would only receive a $10 coupon for Remington products under the proposed settlement. The judge has apparently ordered that representatives owners of older rifles be added as plaintiffs to the suit to get input from the owners of the older rifles. So, in short, Remington and the plaintiffs' attorneys may be happy with the settlement, but it is still not a done deal.

Of course, it is the plaintiffs' attorneys that stand the most to gain from the settlement--according to the article, they stand to collect $12.5 million in fees.