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Lawyer gets cranky over free booze
A limit placed on free drink coupons offered by Southwest Airlines Co has left a thirsty Chicago-based lawyer fuming.As reported by the ABA Journal, the US airline recently revised its drinks…
Lawyers Weekly
A limit placed on free drink coupons offered by Southwest Airlines Co has left a thirsty Chicago-based lawyer fuming.
According to Reuters, Levitt had been diligently collecting his coupons and was owed 45 drinks at the time of Southwest's decision to impose expiration dates on its drink coupons.
After years of receiving free drinks (which would normally cost $5 each) as a premium Southwest customer, Levitt is now suing Southwest for its change in policy, claiming that it amounts to a breach of contract, leaving his 45 coupons worthless.
"Southwest decided that it would make more money - improve its bottom line - by choosing not to honor the coupons that consumers had already paid and bargained for," claimed Levitt in his complaint filed in the Chicago Federal Court, in which he is seeking compensatory damages and class action status for other Southwest customers with worthless coupons (yep, you guessed it, Levitt is a class action litigation lawyer).
Levitt is represented by Joseph Siprut of law firm Siprut SC who told the ABA Journal: "This is where a class action lawsuit really is the appropriate mechanism to deal with this issue ... It only makes sense to do this as a class action on an aggregate basis."
Neither Southwest nor Levitt's legal team provided comment when contacted by Reuters and the ABA Journal.
Folklaw can understand Levitt's frustration with the cost-cutting exercises of airlines these days and we're certainly not surprised that a decision to take free alcohol away from an over-worked, class action lawyer is causing some grief.
