March 2014 - Public Justice

March 31, 2014 In Blog

Important New Book Proves Federal Arbitration Act Badly Distorted by Supreme Court

By Paul Bland, Senior Attorney@PblandBland Professor Imre Szalai of Loyola law school is a friendly, well spoken and thoughtful scholar. And, it turns out, having taken an extremely detailed look deep into the discussions and advocacy that led to the passage of a 1925 statute, he’s…

March 28, 2014 In Blog

Antibiotics And Hormones in Factory Farmed Meat Make You Fat – and That’s Just the Least of Our Worries . . . .

By Leslie Brueckner, Senior Attorney It’s no news that Americans are fat. Not just a little bit fat; we’re talking obesity-style fat, the kind of fat that threatens to put you in an early grave. In fact, according to some estimates, a full one-third of…

March 25, 2014 In Blog

Bait And Switch: Many Corporations Promise to Pay Arbitration Fees, But Don’t

By Paul Bland, Senior Attorney @PblandBland 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. …

March 24, 2014 In Blog

U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Coal Industry Lawsuit

By Jim HeckerDirector, Environmental Enforcement Project Today the Supreme Court denied the coal mining industry’s request to hear a case against the Environmental Protection Agency for vetoing a permit for the Spruce No. 1 mine. This is the latest victory in Public Justice’s 16-year battle to…

March 24, 2014 In Blog

Bullet Dodged: Statutory Damages Are Safe, for Now

By Leah Nicholls, Kazan-Budd Attorney Consumers can breathe a sigh of relief—the Supreme Court has denied review of a case that could have destroyed the ability of consumers to obtain statutory damages from companies that break the law. Statutory damages are an important tool for…

March 18, 2014 In Blog

Cheating With Impunity: Access to Justice Part One

By Arthur Bryant, Executive Director The National Center for Access to Justice at Cardozo Law School just issued a new Justice Index – an online tool intended to provide “a visual and data-based picture of the quality of access to justice in state justice systems.” Highlighted…

March 14, 2014 In Blog

Fighting Back Against Illegal Swine Waste

By Jessica Culpepper, Food Safety and Health Attorney Aerial View of Stantonsburg Swine Facility with Contentnea Creek in background. There’s big money to be made operating an industrial swine feeding operation, especially if you don’t much care whether the excrement from 4,800 pigs – about…

March 13, 2014 In Blog Anti-Bullying

Bullying and the Law: More on What Families Need to Know

By Adele Kimmel, Public Justice Managing Attorney On March 11, I had a great conversation about bullying and the law with hundreds of people who participated in The BULLY Project’s “Speak with an Expert” Conference Call Series. Thanks again to The BULLY Project for inviting…

March 11, 2014 In Blog

Court Secrecy Can Be Deadly And Needs to End

By Leslie Bailey, Staff Attorney If you were about to make a big investment—say, a new car, or tires for your current car—wouldn’t you want to know before you shell out money that the product isn’t dangerous? Johnny Bradley did. In 2004, Mr. Bradley and…

March 11, 2014 In Blog Anti-Bullying

Bullying and the Law: What Families Need to Know

By Adele Kimmel, Managing Attorney What legal options do bullying victims have when their schools fail to take appropriate steps to protect them? This is exactly what I’ll be talking about tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern Time as part of The BULLY Project’s conference call…