Matt Martin
09:26 (BST)
25/06/2008
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Lawyers shocked at lack of Hot Coffee claimants
Lawyers who won the Hot Coffee legal case over Take-Two and Rockstar Games have expressed shock that very few people have made a claim.
Those who bought Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas could file a claim for between USD 5 and USD 35 if they were offended by the infamous hidden sex games – but so far only a paltry 2,676 people have bothered to do so.
"Am I disappointed? Sure," said Seth Lesser, lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, reports the New York Times. "We can't guess as to why now, several years later, people care or don't care. The merits of the case were clear."
The biggest winners look to be the 11 law firms who brought the action as they attempt to claim USD 1.3 million in fees – compared to less than USD 300,000 which Take-Two will pay out to claimants.
This lack of interest is seen by some that the case was meritless from the very beginning. Theodore Frank, director of the Legal Center for the Public Interest at the American Enterprise Institute, said the effort to claim USD 1.3 million will prove the case against Take-Two was worthless.
"There are two possibilities. Possibility one is they have a meritorious lawsuit and they’re selling out the class for attorneys' fees.
"The other possibility is that, and frankly I think this is the more likely possibility, they brought a meritless lawsuit that had no business being brought to court at all," he told the paper.
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