"Kimberly Craven’s op-ed (August 2, 2010) reflects a profound misunderstanding of the Cobell litigation and the settlement agreement. Ms. Craven is one of a handful of critics in a class of 500,000 individual Indians. She has made no secret of her desire to see the settlement fail. Each time her statements are corrected, she conjures up another excuse why the settlement ought to be voided by Congress. Here we go again.

Ms. Craven now contends that Senators were not advised that the settlement is “constitutionally dubious.” Unfortunately, she leaves her readers guessing about what may be unconstitutional about the settlement. To my knowledge, she is not even an attorney and falls far short of a constitutional scholar. Nor does she profess any special knowledge of trust law, the Cobell litigation, or class action lawsuits. Indeed, her “legal” support is an obscure website maintained by a South Carolina attorney. I can assure you that the attorneys who litigated this case for more than 14 years did more than reference dubious legal conclusions from an Internet website. Some of the finest attorneys in private practice and the federal government have combed through the settlement agreement word by word to ensure that it meets the requirements set forth in the Federal Rules and is otherwise consistent with governing law.

The claim that the settlement creates a new “‘un-litigated’ class – the trust mismanagement class” is manifestly false. Had Ms. Craven understood the litigation and settlement agreement, she would have known that the trust mismanagement class includes, among other things, claims for underinvestment, misappropriation, theft, loss of funds, errors, untimely deposits, and restitutionary claims. These (and other) claims are embedded in the original complaint filed over 14 years ago. To be sure, there are other claims that are settled by the settlement agreement, but that is common in class action lawsuits. Importantly, any class member may preserve their claims by opting-out of that portion of the settlement agreement."

Get the Story:
Elouise Cobell: A Cravenly op-ed (The Hill 8/4)

Cobell Settlement Documents:
Agreement | Press Release | Q&A | Audio

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