Small claims action to combat AT&T data throttling

How can a company legally have you sign a contract that keeps you from joining a class action lawsuit? So essentially every company will hide this jem in a contract so that we will never be able to join together to make a change? Class action lawsuits seem like the only ones that work because they deal with much larger sums of money. $850 by the few people that will take the time to do this won't change anything.

So he won nothing?

Ugh, it's called research. Small claims court has no legal fees, in fact lawyers are not permitted to participate in Small Claims Court in California. This lawsuit cost the plaintiff $30 in filing fees and most likely 1.50 registered mail charge to 'serve' AT&T; which means they made $800+. I know this is just a blog not CNN but please do even a tiny bit of research before throwing some word vomit up on the page.

Last I checked, if you go to Small Claims court you can't bring an attorney.

Small claims court is designed for people to use without a lawyer. So it may not be the case that the fellow in your story had to hire a lawyer to pursue his case.

However, as a corporation, AT&T does not have the ability to self-represent in small claims court. So it most definitely had to hire an expensive lawyer to show up in court. So there, AT&T.

In most jurisdictions, lawyers are not permitted in small claims court, and they're really not necessary. Small claims court is meant for recovery of damages, not to make a legal point. Bring your contract and come up with a convincing argument as to why a throttled provision of data does not constitute "unlimited data." This is essentially a contract dispute. One should also make a claim of false advertising, as stipulations in contracts can be invalidated with evidence that a material change of circumstances has occurred since the contract was signed. In this case, a change in the service that was advertised and provided.

You also must bring evidence that you were, in fact, throttled, and that you suffered specific economic damages as a result.

You cannot go to small claims court out of principle. There must be actual, quantifiable damages.

You don't have a lawyer in small claims court. In every jurisdiction I have heard of attorney representation is now allowed in small claims.

Ummm, guys, this is about 2 week old news.

"The $850 that Mr Spaccarelli received would barely cover his legal fees..."
Actually the $850 is more than enough. At small claims court, you represent yourself and filing costs are at most like $50. So he netted himself more than enough with enough money to escape his contract and get a new phone at Verizon or another company.

"Your best option is to hire a lawyer, go to small claims court and hope for the best."

It's my understanding that you cannot have a lawyer represent you in small claims court...that's one of the points of small claims court.