Plaintiffs’ class-action lawyers, in collaboration with the very defendants they sue on our behalf, have worked out a Dickensian scheme that is keeping millions, tens of millions, or perhaps even hundreds of millions of dollars (it’s hard to know for sure) in class-action settlement recoveries out of the pockets of class members.

How do they do this, you might ask? Rather than settling these cases like a typical contingency fee case, these artful dodgers of the legal world are negotiating their fees with the defendants after (or so they claim) and separate from any recovery they negotiate for us class members. In doing so, class-action lawyers are able to enrich themselves at the expense of their clients, while the courts look the other way.

Let me explain. Take the case of a typical personal injury accident. Assume you were injured in a car accident and hired a lawyer. The lawyer comes to you one day, gives you a check and tells you that your case has been settled. When you ask about his fee, he tells you not to worry, that you won’t have to pay him anything because he will be paid by the insurance company.

Hmm, let’s think about this. Did the lawyer really get the most he could for your claim if he was going to be negotiating his fee after your settlement? Did the insurance company really give you everything it had to offer to settle your case if it was going to pay your lawyer’s fee afterward? What do you think? Shouldn’t your lawyer be focused on your recovery? Isn’t that the oath the lawyer takes in order to get licensed by the state? Isn’t the separate payment scheme a breach of the lawyer’s fiduciary responsibility to his client because it puts the lawyer’s interests in maximizing his own fee in conflict with maximizing the recovery for his client? Shouldn’t the lawyer’s fee payment be an issue between you and your lawyer, and not your lawyer and the person you’re suing?

Now imagine this same situation, but add thousands of claims and millions of dollars, and you have a class-action lawsuit, in which the stakes are sky high because class counsel stands to gain millions, if not tens of millions, of dollars in attorneys’ fees.

Yes, class members can get their pockets picked — just like the hypothetical car accident victim discussed above.

A California court of appeal recently approved this very practice in a class-action settlement against Bank of America. As if one needs to be reminded, class actions are not for us class members, they are for the defendants and the lawyers. Like the Artful Dodger and his ilk in Dickensian England, plaintiffs’ class-action lawyers seemingly have a green light to continue their ways — picking the pockets of American consumers by filing lawsuits on behalf of class members so that they can use them to reap millions of dollars in attorneys’ fees.

For plaintiffs’ class-action lawyers, the separate payment of their attorneys’ fees is the gift that keeps on giving.

Lawrence W. Schonbrun is the executive director of Class Action Watch.