The Hilsee Group’s Todd B. Hilsee is the leading class action notice expert. He analyzes and testifies on the adequacy of all aspects of legal notifications and claims processes on behalf of judges, special masters, and lawyers. Mr. Hilsee critiques notice and claims programs to benefit due process, as well as judicial and regulatory oversight.
Todd Hilsee was the first person judicially recognized as an expert on class action notice in published decisions in the United States and in Canada. Mr. Hilsee has authored and co-authored numerous articles on notice and due process. He created the Federal Judicial Center’s “model” class action notices and its Notice and Claims Process Checklist for federal judges. With 30 years of class action notice experience, The Hilsee Group has set precedents in ground-breaking international notice, in notices designed to be “noticed,” and in reaching highly targeted and hard-to-reach audiences. Mr. Hilsee warns courts about the illusion of many of today’s ineffective notice efforts that cause today’s paltry claims rates. In 2017, he appeared on 60 Minutes, to reveal a defective Remington rifle class action notice and woeful claims rate.
Mr. Hilsee has been recognized as a notice expert in published decisions by more Judges than almost all other experts combined.
When Todd was advising the Federal Rules Committee, its Chairperson, Judge Lee Rosenthal stated:
“I want to tell you how much we collectively appreciate your working with the Federal Judicial Center to improve the quality of the model notices that they’re developing. That’s a tremendous contribution and we appreciate that very much . . . You raised three points that are criteria for good noticing, and I was interested in your thoughts on how the rule itself that we’ve proposed could better support the creation of those or the insistence on those kinds of notices . . .
– Judge Lee Rosenthal, Chairperson, Advisory Committee on Civil Rules of the Judicial Conference of the United States, (Jan. 22, 2002), addressing Mr. Hilsee in a public hearing on proposed changes to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23
Hilsee Created Modern Notice Standards
Having brought modern advertising principles to legal notice in the early 1990’s, Mr. Hilsee collaborated with the Federal Judicial Center in 2003 to create their “Model” Plain Language Notices, and in 2010 to write and design their Judges’ Class Action Notice and Claims Process Checklist and Plain Language Guide.