Lawsuit against Author Solutions discontinued

A lawsuit against Author Solutions has been discontinued after plaintiffs reached a settlement with the company, it has been reported.

The lawsuit was filed in April 2013 by New York-based law firm Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart, accusing Author Solutions of seeking to make money from authors, rather than for authors.

In July this year, after the case had survived various motions to dismiss, Judge Denise Cote at the United States District Court Southern District of New York, denied class certification in the case of Mary Simmons and Jodi Foster versus Author Solutions, saying that certain requirements had not been met.

On 12th August, reported Publishers Weekly, Cote ordered the case to be “discontinued without prejudice after being informed by the parties that a settlement had been reached, following a court-ordered conference”, which was held on 11th August. Terms of the settlement have not been disclosed.

At the time Cote denied the class certification, Andrew Phillips, president and c.e.o. of Author Solutions, said: “From the outset, we believed the court would establish the truth and determine the class action allegations were without merit.”

Giskan Solotaroff Anderson & Stewart has filed two further suits in Indiana, where Author Solutions is based. The second class action suit was filed in November 2014 in the District Court of the South District of Indiana, while the third was filed in the same court in March this year. It is not known how these cases will be affected by the outcome of the New York case.