Walmart has settled a $45 million class action suit against the company for an alleged “deceptive pricing scheme”. The nationwide retailer faces accusations of mislabeling weights and failing to properly discount clearance items.
A group of U.S. Plaintiff’s law firms have requested a modernization of civil trials rules amidst the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. They want to encourage live-streamed testimony from witnesses who are not able to appear in court, with the end goal of improving efficiency throughout the trial process.
Public Justice recently published an article, “The Double Taxation of Attorney Fee Awards Leaves Wronged Consumers in the Cold. Help Us End It.”
Mark Joseph Stern at Slate has written an article on explains in a way that many laypeople can understand, why class actions are important and valuable.
A new report authored by Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law Professor Imre S. Szalai, finds that 80 percent of Fortune 100 companies use arbitration in their employment documents, nearly half of which contain class and collective action bans.
In an important decision for investors, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on March 20, 2018, that state courts can continue to hear certain securities class actions brought under federal law.
According to an article in the publication called The Hill, President Trump’s appointee to the SEC suggested that the SEC may consider removing a ban that has been in place for years that has prohibited securities issuers from putting class action bans in their disclosures relating to IPO’s.
21st Century Fox recently announced that it was agreeing to pay $90 million to resolve a derivative suit against the corporation’s management arising out of sexual harassment allegations.
Here is a link to a well written article by Daniel Karon, a plaintiff’s lawyer, on why destroying the CFPB is bad for big business.
Senate Republicans narrowly passed a resolution to kill a recently adopted Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule prohibiting financial firms from requiring customers to resolve any disputes with the firms through individual arbitrations.
Many articles are now appearing pointing out that Georgia Representative Loudermilk proposed a bill to gut the regulations applicable to Equifax (which is headquartered in Georgia) just before the data breach became public. Here are links to the articles:
A brief remark from SEC Commissioner Michael Piwowar during a July 17, 2017, Q&A suggests that he believes the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission might soon allow companies to introduce mandatory arbitration clauses into their corporate charters.
The Economic Policy Institute just released a fact sheet debunking industry claims that consumers recover more money in arbitration than class actions.
On July 20, 2017, Congressional Republicans began a process to attempt to eliminate a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule that stops companies from putting class action bans in their arbitration clauses and makes it easier for consumers to sue banks, credit card firms, payday lenders and other service providers in court.
Paul Bland has written an excellent article in The Hill that reviews the background behind the publication of the new CFPB rule banning mandatory arbitration, and addresses the merits and criticisms of the new rule.
On July 10, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a new rule to ban companies from using mandatory arbitration clauses to deny groups of people their day in court.
J.C. Penney agreed to pay $97.5 million and make other concessions to a class of investors who had accused the retailer of lying about its financial health.
Recently, the Republican-controlled U.S. House passed a bill intended to make it more difficult to bring class actions.
Dan Karon, one of the leaders of the ABA Class Action Committee, has authored an article that explains how the proposed class action bill, H.B. 985, will hurt businesses that supporters of the legislation contend the bill is designed to assist.
According to a story published in the Hill, Wells Fargo’s scandalous practice of secretly opening more than 2 million sham deposit and credit card accounts dragged on for at least five years, because Wells Fargo contract provisions blocked consumers from suing the bank in court.
