would have used insurance company funds to pay off the remaining claims in the Weinstein Company bankruptcy, with $18.9 million going to class-action claimants and their attorneys, $5.4 million to individual plaintiffs and additional money to trade creditors, defense attorneys working for Weinstein and the other Weinstein Company officers and directors.
At the preliminary approval hearing Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which lasted only 20 minutes, Hellersteinthat the case is not suitable for class action, that the agreement would treat all victims the same and that “women who have been raped are entitled to a much greater recovery than those who just met him.”
Hellerstein also objected to a plan to set aside money to help Weinstein and the former board of the Weinstein Company pay defense costs,, “the idea that Harvey Weinstein could get a defense fund ahead of the plaintiffs is obnoxious.” According to the agreement, a “special master” would evaluate each woman’s claim and assign a monetary value, which Hellerstein objected to,that it should be up to a judge to decide and was an “abdication of the court’s responsibility.”
Lawyers for the victims applauded Hellerstein’s decision: “We have been saying for over a year-and-a-half that the settlement terms and conditions were unfair and should never be imposed on sexual assault survivors,” Douglas Wigdor, Kevin Mintzer and Bryan Arbeit said in aearlier this month that Weinstein"remains intently focused in defending himself on all remaining legal matters, including the appeal of his criminal conviction, civil lawsuits and the charges filed against him in LA.
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