DETROIT-Last Thursday, local attorney Majed Moughni was unsuccessful in a bid to convince Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Kathleen Macdonald to allow others to join in on the McDonalds non-halal $700,000 class action settlement.
The lawsuit stems from Dearborn Heights resident Ahmed Ahmed’s purchasing of a McDonald’s meal from Dearborn’s Ford Rd. location, owned by Finley’s Management Company, which advertises the selling of halal chicken. Ahmed alleged the meal he had purchased was non-halal despite being advertised as so.
Three attorneys from the Dearborn firm Jaafar & Mahdi Law Group, P.C. represented the class plaintiffs in the case, ultimately settling for $700,000 from the corporation. That money would be divided amongst the plaintiffs and also be donated to the HUDA clinic in Detroit and the Arab American National Museum in Dearborn.
Majed Moughni, who runs the Facebook page Dearborn Area Community Members, believed it was unfair that $700,000 was to be divided among those parties only. After the lawsuit was made public, Moughni posted on the Dearborn Area Community Members page stating that the settlement should go to those who ate “haram” chicken, and asked Facebook users to leave contact information if they wanted to intervene into the lawsuit and press the “like” button if they agreed with his stance.
Judge Macdonald ruled last week that Moughni must remove all information regarding his efforts in the case from the Facebook page. She also ordered Moughni to turn over a list of those who posted statements about the case, those who “liked” his post and all information in each response, including names and contact information.
According to the Dearborn Press & Guide, Judge Macdonald stated that Moughni’s efforts were “materially false, deceptive and misleading” and he engaged in “deliberate and abusive conduct which has created a likelihood of confusion of class members, adversely has effected the administration of justice and had undermined this court’s responsibility and authority to protect class members from such abuses.”
After reaching out to the law firm Jaafar & Mahdi Law Group, P.C., they issued the following statement in regards to Judge Macdonald’s recent decision:
With regards to the motion, we believe that Judge Macdonald’s ruling was completely consistent with the existing case law on this issue. She entered an order that prevented Mr. Moughni from communicating with class members without first receiving consent from our firm, or from the court. Some individuals have since voiced their concerns and allege that this may be a violation of Mr. Moughni’s right to free speech.
As to the First Amendment concerns: there is no First Amendment right to deceive and mislead people about their rights under a class action settlement. Mr. Moughni attempted to do that by falsely giving off the impression that he was in some way shape or form able to procure compensation for someone if they simply hit the “like” button on his Facebook page. This conduct is a mockery of the class action process, which actually primarily exists to protect the rights of consumers against the abuses of large corporations.
To be clear, Mr. Moughni does not, nor has he ever, represented any client in this matter. And as the judge ruled, his conduct was deceptive and misleading.
As to the concern that this order is harsh, or goes too far, we state that this order is not unusual or unprecedented in class action litigation. Our research has uncovered dozens of cases where people who have misled or deceived a class have been ordered to stop communicating about the case by the court. The only purpose of such a measure is to protect the class members from further deceptive and misleading communication.
We do not want the focus of this case to become Mr. Moughni or his misconduct. This case represents a huge victory for the American Muslim Community, and for consumers everywhere. We view Mr. Moughni’s misconduct and deception to be a mere distraction to a much larger, and more important issue. And it would be a tragedy if this distraction continued to overshadow that point, Jaafar & Mahdi Law Group, P.C. stated.
In an attempt to reach Moughni’s office, a representative said he was unable to comment to the media under the judge’s orders. The final settlement terms of the lawsuit are still expected to move forward on March 1 as planned.
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