More than three years ago, victims of Joanne Schneider’s Ponzi scheme filed a lawsuit against First Merit Bank. They claim that the bank should have noticed that Schneider was using her First Merit account to operate the multi-million dollar “promissory note” scheme and should have shut down that account.  On Thursday afternoon, July 23, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge John P. O’Donnell will hold a hearing to decide if the victims’ lawsuit should be a “class action”, giving  all of Schneider’s victims a chance to recover money they lost.  The hearing is open to the public and will begin at 1:30 pm in Courtroom 18-D of the Justice Center.