The following are important dates that will affect your rights:
- Deadline for Submitting a Claim: September 30, 2019. Detailed Instructions on submitting a claim can be found here.
- Deadline for Requesting Exclusion: May 28, 2019. If you ask to be excluded, you will not receive a cash payment, but you may be able to file your own lawsuit against Wendy’s and its franchisees for the same claims. This is the only option that leaves your financial institution the right to file its own lawsuit against Wendy’s, its franchisees, and/or Defendants’ Released Persons (defined in Settlement) for the claims that are being resolved by the Settlement. In order to be effective, a request to be excluded from the Settlement must include all information required by the Settlement. Detailed instructions on how to exclude your financial institution from the Settlement can be found here.
- Deadline for Submitting an Objection: May 28, 2019. If your financial institution is a Settlement Class Member, you can object to the Settlement if you do not think it is fair, reasonable, or adequate. You can give reasons why you think the Court should not approve it. The Court will consider your views. If you object to the Settlement and seek to exclude your financial institution, your financial institution will be deemed to have excluded itself. Detailed instructions for objecting to the settlement can be found here.
- Deadline for Objectors to File Response to Final Approval Motion and Fee Application: October 18, 2019. Class Counsel has a deadline of October 7, 2019, to file a motion for final approval of the Settlement and a motion for attorneys’ fees, costs, and expenses and for Service Awards. Objectors, if any, have until October 18, 2019 to file any response to Class Counsel’s motions.
- Final Approval Hearing: November 6, 2019 The Court will hold a Final Approval Hearing on November 6, 2019 at 10:00 a.m., in Courtroom 9C before Magistrate Judge Maureen P. Kelly of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Joseph F. Weis, Jr. U.S. Courthouse, 700 Grant Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219. This hearing date and time may be moved. Please refer to the Settlement Status page for notice of any changes. At the Final Approval Hearing, the Court will consider, among other things, whether the Settlement is fair, reasonable,
and adequate; how much Plaintiffs’ lawyers will receive as attorneys’ fees and expenses; and whether to approve Service Awards to the Settlement Class Representatives. If there are objections, the Court will consider them. The Court will listen to people at the hearing who file in advance a timely notice of their intention to appear (see instructions here ). At or after the Final Approval Hearing, the Court will decide whether to approve the Settlement. There is no deadline by which the Court must make its decision.