re: My 49 cent settlement check shows how worthless most class action lawsuits are

I'm biased, but to me there's nothing inherently shady about attorneys' profiting more than any single litigant in a class action.

That said, in a lot of these class and collective actions, they're spawning litigation that doesn't occur naturally. Big time toxic tort and the like often have very real injuries that are being addressed. The same isn't true when lawyers realize Google has engaged in minor tortious behavior 9 billion times and wants to build grievances people didn't even know they had.