JPMorgan Chase Debit Card Fee Litigation

On February 6, 2012, JPMorgan Chase reached an agreement with a potential class of debit cardholders who allege that JPMorgan Chase charged excessive overdraft fees on debit cards. Plaintiffs’ claims stem from the bank’s method of posting transactions in a given day from highest to lowest amount rather than an alternative posting order. The posting order can affect the number of overdraft fees because account balances are more likely to go negative when larger transactions are processed before smaller transactions. JPMorgan Chase retained Robert Willig to address the class certification question of whether there exists a common methodology for determining class-wide damages. Dr. Willig filed an expert report in which he showed that an individual’s checking and debit card transactions are affected by posting order. Therefore, determination of damages would require an individualized inquiry into each debit cardholder’s likely transactions under an alternative posting order. The settlement with plaintiffs was reached prior to the court’s ruling on class certification. The Compass Lexecon team included Neal Lenhoff, Lynette Neumann, Eugene Orlov, and Bradley Reiff. Compass Lexecon worked with David Lesser and Christopher Lipsett of WilmerHale.