Author Solutions case ends in settlement

A closely watched lawsuit that accused self-publishing service provider Author Solutions of fraud appears to be over.

On August 12, Judge Denise Côté ordered the case dismissed without prejudice after being informed by the parties that a settlement had been reached, following a court-ordered conference held on August 11. A settlement was not unexpected, coming just weeks after Côté dealt the authors’ plaintiffs’ case a presumably fatal blow by denying class-action status.

The case was first filed in April 2013, with a group of plaintiff authors pressing a series of claims against Author Solutions, and arguing that a common issue boded for a class action: “Did Author Solutions engaged in a fraudulent scheme to sell worthless marketing services?” In the filings, the plaintiffs alleged that Author Solutions, as part of a company-wide policy, concealed from consumers that it was “a telemarketing operation” based on the upselling “worthless” services to unsuspecting authors.

Attorneys for Author Solutions countered that the lawsuit was “a misguided attempt to make a federal class action out of a series of allegations.”

After two amended complaints, a changing list of named plaintiffs, and thorny legal and jurisdictional hurdles, Cote ultimately rejected the authors’ bid for class certification, citing no evidence of a “centrally orchestrated scheme.” to defraud the authors.

Ultimately, the case in New York ended up with only two named plaintiffs, Mary Simmons and Jodi Foster. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Update: Plaintiff’s attorney Oren Giskan was traveling and unavailable for comment, but it’s worth noting that the firm filed a second potential class action lawsuit against Author Solutions this spring in the state of Indiana, with new authors representative plaintiffs. We will report on this pursuit as it progresses.