After the Supreme Court (in)famously reversed class certification in the nationwide Dukes v. Walmart employment discrimination class action in 2011, smaller class actions have gone forward in its place in various parts of the country. The case against Walmart in Texas was dismissed by the district court based on the statute of limitations. This week, […]
Author Archives: Scott Michelman
No, explains the Eleventh Circuit, reversing summary judgment against a consumer who was hounded by State Farm with 327 autodialed calls over a span of six months in an attempt to collect somebody else's debt. The plaintiff told State Farm to stop calling. Even if the FDCPA required him to do so in writing, the […]
When an essential consumer safety rule is issued after a prolonged delay, do you cheer the life-saving rule, or bemoan the delay? For me, some of each. We've posted before about the problem of deadly "backover" crashes (collisions in which a vehicle moving in reverse strikes a person behind the vehicle, whom the driver can't […]
Public Citizen was in court Monday arguing the case of Vera Scroggins, who has been protesting and documenting the damage caused by fracking the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania. A few months ago, she was hit with an injunction barring her from any property that fracking company Cabot Oil and Gas owns, or to which […]
That's the title of this thought-provoking piece in The Hill by Public Citizen President Rob Weissman about the amicus brief filed this week by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in the class action over the damage caused by the Deepwater Horizon spill. The Chamber supports BP — against small U.S. businesses — in trying to […]
As we've discussed, briefing is underway before the Ninth Circuit in an appeal regarding the settlement of a class action against Facebook (Fraley v. Facebook) for using its members' images for advertising without their consent — including the images of minors without their parents' consent. In a related development, yesterday the same judge in the […]
In LaCrosse, Wisconsin, a disproportionately large percentage of the population have advance medical directives for dealing with end-of-life care, reports NPR's Planet Money. It's a cultural thing, not a government mandate: people there are just comfortable talking about and planning for their own deaths. LaCrosse is also notable for having the lowest health-care spending in […]
As our friends at Public Justice explain, A lot of advocates for forced arbitration like to make a big deal out of how generally corporations pay most of the arbitration fees (that can be pretty expensive), rather than sticking those on the typical worker or consumer. . . . But the thing is, on those […]
Today, both the FTC and the State of California weighed in regarding the case against Facebook over "Sponsored Stories." (As we've discussed, several objectors are challenging the class settlement in this case because it authorizes Facebook to use minors' images for advertising in violation of seven states' privacy laws.) Although neither the FTC nor California […]
We've told you about the case of Vera Scroggins, who has been documenting the damage caused by fracking the Marcellus Shale in northeastern Pennsylvania. A few months ago, she was hit with an injunction barring her from any property that fracking company Cabot Oil and Gas owns, or to which Cabot leases the mineral rights […]