Pearson Education has agreed to settle a lawsuit with two textbook authors who claimed the company was failing to pay proper royalties.
First filed in October of 2014 by professors Lawrence J. Gitman and Michael D. Joehnk, the authors of several popular finance textbooks, the suit alleged that Pearson was using accounting tricks to "systematically shortchange" textbook authors on royalties they are owed. The authors claimed they were personally owed roughly $470,000 in additional royalties, and they had sought class action status, asserting that that their fellow Pearson authors were also likely owed millions of dollars more.
On February 22, a federal judge in New York issued an order of dismissal following notice of the pending settlement, giving the parties 30 days to hammer out the final deal. But a final settlement agreement, which was due to be filed last week, has apparently not yet been finalized, and the parties have requested an extension until April 6 to hammer out the document.
Terms of the proposed settlement have not been revealed.
