Federal Judge Certifies Class Action In Overdraft Fees Litigation

The United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida certified a class action lawsuit alleging that defendants engaged in a systematic scheme to manipulate and re-order debit card transactions to increase the number of overdraft fees imposed on its customers. Plaintiffs alleged that defendant employed a bookkeeping trick to re-order the sequence of debit card transactions from highest to lowest dollar amount at the time of posting to deplete customer accounts more quickly and to collect excessive amounts of overdraft fees. Plaintiffs alleged that, but for the "trick" employed by defendant, sufficient funds would have been in the customers' accounts. Further, plaintiffs alleged that defendant did not fairly disclose its bookkeeping practices, but rather actively concealed those practices. In granting class certification, the Court found that plaintiffs provided "significant evidence" to establish the existence of common issues of law and fact related