I have been contacted by an attorney seeking to submit a class
action suit against DeBeers.
He maintains that there is a pot of money out there that will be
divided up to those who have sold diamonds in the last year. He is
from “Class Action Refund LLC”
Naturally I am immediately suspicious of anyone contacting me online
saying that they want to give me money.
Has anyone else been contacted by this firm, or know anything about
this supposed refund on a settlement.
This has already been brought up, but I’ve done some research as I
was called by a law firm about this. It is most likely a legitimate
firm. However there really isn’t any reason to use them. You are
going to be required to fill out the same amount of paperwork whether
you are working with the law firm or filing for a claim
independently. The JVC has more about this on their
website. Personally, I think for most of us we could be talking about
getting a check for $50-100, if we’re lucky, so it’s going to be
questionable how worthwhile the whole thing is. The pool of money,
which is not really that large, is going to be divided up among
thousands and thousands of people and businesses (as I read it even
individuals who purchased a single engagement ring stone could file
if they choose to) so unless you bought and sold a whole lot of
diamonds during the specified period of time I’m not sure you’re
going to be looking at much money. Check out the JVC website for more
info.
Daniel R. Spirer, G.G.
Daniel R. Spirer Jewelers, LLC
1780 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
Regarding De Beers settlement and “a pot of money,” I’ll just repeat
what was in my article, posted recently on Orchid. You don’t need an
intermediary to file a claim. The Jewelers’ Vigilance Committee
offers advice and info on this. Claim amounts will vary greatly but
for small users (craftspeople), amounts will likewise be small. No
one is getting back what they paid for diamonds, only, in theory,
some small percentage that represents the amount over what they
would have paid for the diamonds if De Beers had not acted in a
monopolistic fashion. Be aware if someone is trying to turn this into
the urban legend of tons of money available if you just send out an
email.
There’s an article in the JCK issue that just came out about this
subject. I think it’s by one of the lawyers who was on the team that
successfully brought this suit against DeBeers. In the article
indicates there may be attempts by other law firms to to contact
potential beneficiaries of the lawsuit to collect their money. The
article points out that this isn’t necessary. The winning law firm is
in the process of developing the procedure for the beneficiaries to
claim their money without paying some other law firm the customary
30%.
There’s lots of about the lawsuit, just type “debeers
class action” into Google. However, in my experience, beneficiaries
of a class action suit are notified in writing, by mail. You are
right to be suspicious.