AWKO lawyers Bryan Aylstock and Jason Richards were appointed co-lead counsel by the judge in this MDL. Over 209,000 claims were filed and processed. In rejecting to the single objector’s claim that the settlement could have been better, the court said “there is no better settlement” than the one achieved here. In a statement to the press, attorney Jason Richards said the following:
We are very pleased with the court’s decision to grant final approval of the settlement. The order was critical of Mr. Frank’s objection, and for good reason. There could be no “better settlement” in our view. We were able to get consumers full refunds for benzene contaminated sunscreen products, vouchers for non-contaminated sunscreen products, and injunctive relief which requires the company to adopt new testing protocols for benzene to protect consumers in the future. Mr. Frank’s objection seemed to fit his own personal objectives. Whatever those objectives were, they were his alone. They were not shared by any other lawyers or class members in this litigation, and were rightly rejected by the court. This is a win-win settlement for consumers.
Aylstock, Witkin, Kreis & Overholtz PLLC