Class actions are interesting. Basically the lawyer for the class has a dollar value he or she wants before they even send their letter to the company being sued. Then they work towards that. Once they reach that number they don’t really care how the class is reimbursed. And neither do the judges.
Source: my wife is an attny & worked at a top class-action firm for over a decade. Without breaking confidentiality, I still heard all kinds of interesting stories about the mechanics & internals of how the system works - how multiple firms work together, how cases are started, etc., but never anything remotely related to such a "targeted revenue" concept. Of course there's the obvious requirement that any case specify damages at the outset, but even this number can increase or decrease as the case proceeds.
A law firm can of course make big money with a big case, but it is a big risk that can take many years to return, and it can fail.
