Westamerica Bank Class Action Settlement Of Overdraft Fee Class Action Lawsuit

If you were a Westamerica Bank customer who did not have only a business account, and who was, on at least one occasion during the class period (July 1, 2006 through April 30, 2011) assessed more than one overdraft fee for a single day’s posting of debits to your account, your rights may be affected by a proposed class action settlement.

A class action settlement has been reached in a class action lawsuit against Westamerica Bank (collectively “Westamerica Bank” or “Defendant”) pending in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Marin (styled Jannette Trevino v. Westamerica Bank, Case No. CIV 1003690) alleging, among other things, that Westamerica did not post transactions in “time order” and instead posted them in “high to low” order, that it did not tell customers clearly enough about how their checking account transactions would be posted, and that its posting practice resulted in customers paying more overdraft fees to Westamerica Bank, according to the Westamerica Bank Overdraft Fee class action lawsuit settlement notice.

The Westamerica Bank overdraft fee class action lawsuit settlement class reportedly includes the following persons, unless otherwise excluded:

All Westamerica Bank customers who did not have only a business account, and who was, on at least one occasion during the class period (July 1, 2006 through April 30, 2011) assessed more than one overdraft fee for a single day’s posting of debits to their account.

If the Westamerica Bank Overdraft Fee settlement is approved by the Court, Westamerica will reportedly make certain changes to its overdraft-related practices, and will pay a total of $2,000,000 into a fund (the “Settlement Fund”).  Of the settlement fund, a maximum of 25% will be used to pay attorneys fees, a maximum of $40,000 will be used to pay Class Counsel’s litigation expenses and a maximum amount of $5,000 will be paid to Trevino as an incentive fee for her role in prosecuting the litigation.  After payments are distributed from the Settlement Fund to pay these fees and costs, including tax expenses and the costs of administering the settlement and distributing payments to Class Members, the balance of the Settlement Fund will be paid to Class Members based upon the comparative number of multiple overdraft fees they were assessed.

The Court has tentatively scheduled a final settlement fairness hearing to be held on November 16, 2011 at Marin County Superior Court, 3501 Civic Center Drive, San Rafael, California to decide whether to approve the settlement, the requested award of attorneys’ fees and expenses, the award of a service fee to Plaintiff Trevino for prosecuting the litigation, and the costs of administering the settlement.

For more information on the Westamerica Bank Overdraft Fee class action settlement, visit the Trevino v. Westamerica Bank Settlement Case Information Website:

www.westamericabanksettlement.com

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