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"                      <p class=\"imgtitle\">Brad Lakin</p>            <br />EAST ST. LOUIS &ndash; LakinChapman lawyers whose giant class action against tax preparer H & R Block shriveled to a dispute over $102, plan to take it to trial anyway.<br /> <br /> U.S. District Judge Michael Reagan, who denied certification of a class alleging Block improperly sold \"peace of mind\" protection, set trial for two plaintiffs April 25.<br /> <br />  Block, figuring Reagan might as well call it off, moved for summary judgment on Oct. 18.<br /> <br />  John Clear of St. Louis wrote that plaintiffs can't prove deception or damages.<br /> <br />  The former Lakin Law Firm sued H & R Block Tax Services in 2001, in Madison County circuit court, on behalf of Lorie Marshall.<br /> <br />  She paid $20 for peace of mind on tax returns for 1996 through 1999.<br /> <br />  Peace of mind guarantees payment up to $4,000 for any penalties or interest resulting from Block's errors.<br /> <br />  Lakin lawyers later added Debra Ramirez, who paid $22 on her return for 2000.<br /> <br />  They claimed peace of mind lacked value because Block seldom committed errors and the Internal Revenue Service seldom audited returns of Block customers.<br /> <br />  Associate Judge Ralph Mendelsohn certified the plaintiffs to represent a national class, and he certified Block Tax Services to represent a defendant class of Block entities.<br /> <br />  Later he shrank the class to 11 states and decertified the defendant class.<br /> <br />  Block removed the case to federal court, claiming Mendelsohn's changes turned it into a new case for purposes of the Class Action Fairness Act.<br /> <br />  Block argued that liability for Block Tax Services vastly increased because liability for all Block entities shifted to it.<br /> <br />  Reagan disagreed and remanded the case to Madison County.<br /> <br />  On appeal, judges of the Seventh Circuit reversed Reagan.<br /> <br />  He declared he would not honor Mendelsohn's order, and he held a hearing on class certification this April.<br /> <br />  By then, plaintiffs had abandoned the theory that peace of mind lacked value.<br /> <br />  Block had countered that by showing it paid $220 million on peace of mind claims.<br /> <br />  LakinChapman lawyers pleaded instead that Block omitted necessary information about audit rates, error rates, claims amounts and sales commissions.<br /> <br />  Reagan rejected the new theory in September, finding a lack of uniformity in the reasons customers chose to purchase peace of mind.<br /> <br />  He found that neither plaintiff presented a case typical of a class.<br /> <br />  He turned a suit that would have involved millions of transactions over 13 years into one over four payments from Marshall and one from Ramirez.<br /> <br />  He set a trial date, triggering Block's motion for summary judgment.<br /> <br />  \"Block's sales practices were entirely straightforward,\" Clear wrote.<br /> <br />  \"Block accurately described the product it was selling, and offered the opportunity for plaintiffs to ask any questions they wished,\" he wrote.<br /> <br />  \"Plaintiffs do not claim they were told anything that was untrue,\" he wrote.<br /> <br />  Reagan ordered plaintiffs to respond by Nov. 12.   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://madisonrecord.com/stories/510569941-lakinchapman-plans-trial-over-102-h-r-block-peace-of-mind-claim>