LAWRENCE, Mass. (AP) - An attorney who represented victims of a series of natural gas explosions and fires in Massachusetts nearly two years ago is waiving his fees for representing clients in the $143 million class action settlement, he said.
Attorney David Raimondo initially told clients he would be assessing an 11% fee out of their settlement checks from the suit, according to The Eagle-Tribune.
In response to complaints to the attorney general’s office earlier this summer, Raimondo agreed to waive the fee for those receiving lump-sum payments from the settlement.
On Monday, Raimondo said he would also be waiving his fee for clients awaiting itemized payments. Those checks are expected to be sent in September.
“Ethically this is the best thing I can do for my clients,” Raimondo said.
Raimondo said clients “felt the retainer they signed was not sufficiently explained to them” when the matter became a consolidated, class action suit.
He assisted roughly 175 clients from Andover, North Andover and Lawrence after the Sept. 2018 explosions that killed a teenager, injured almost two dozen people and destroyed or damaged more than 100 structures.
Federal investigators blamed the explosions on overpressurized gas lines.
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