July 2014 - Public Justice

July 30, 2014 In Blog

UPDATED: Obama Order Single Most Important Step for Civil Rights in 20+ Years

Photo via Mark Blacknell on Flickr Major news outlets are reporting that President Obama is preparing to sign an executive order providing that corporations who receive federal contracts worth more than $1 million may not require their workers to submit to forced arbitration clauses for…

July 29, 2014 In Blog

Consumers Win with Court Ruling on Meat Labels

By Jessica Culpepper Food Safety and Health Attorney The DC Circuit Court of Appeals issued a hugely important opinion today in American Meat Institute v. United States Dep’t of Agriculture, upholding the USDA’s Country of Origin Labeling rule requiring increased specificity regarding where the meat…

July 28, 2014 In Updates

Attorneys Who Won Landmark Lead Paint Judgment and Cleanup Named Public Justice Trial Lawyers of the Year

Members of the team accept the 2014 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award at the Annual Gala. >>>Watch the video on the case. The attorneys who successfully fought for lead paint cleanup in People of California v. Atlantic Richfield were named Sunday as Public Justice’s…

July 21, 2014 In Blog

What “Greedy” Trial Lawyers and “Frivolous” Litigation Do

autumnal_hedge via photopin cc By Arthur BryantChairman Corporate America loves to trash trial lawyers because trial lawyers hold them accountable – when they break the law, cheat people, sell defective products, discriminate, mistreat workers, poison the water and air or maximize profit over safety and…

July 18, 2014 In Blog

Can “Pregnancy Blind” Company Policies Constitute Pregnancy Discrimination? U.S. Supreme Court to Decide.

Image via Tuckner Sipser By Adrian Alvarez Goldberg-Robb Attorney Does United Parcel Services discriminate against a pregnant worker when it refuses to assign her to “light duty” while she’s pregnant, but assigns light duty to a worker who breaks his arm on the job? This…

July 17, 2014 In Blog

American Apparel Hides Sexual Harassment and More through Mandatory Arbitration

American Apparel arbitration clause via Jezebel. By Arthur Bryant Chairman An eye-opening piece by Stephen Davidoff Solomon in The New York Times highlights a huge, unappreciated danger of corporations requiring employees to sign mandatory arbitration “agreements” to get or keep their jobs – hiding outrageous…

July 11, 2014 In Blog

Coal Mining Industry Is Having a Bummer of a Summer in the Federal Courts

This summer’s developments have rebuked the industry’s “Yes, Coal” message. By Jim Hecker Director, Environmental Enforcement Project Rather than clean up the pollution caused by mining and burning coal, the coal industry has long denied that any serious environmental harm is occurring. It has also…

July 10, 2014 In Blog

Pac 9 Port Truck Drivers Defeat Arbitration Agreement, Will Have Wage Claims Heard

Image via Teamster.org. By Victoria W. Ni Senior Attorney It’s day four of the strike by more than 120 port truck drivers in L.A. and Long Beach, who have vowed to stop work until they are reclassified as employees. It takes courage to strike when…

July 7, 2014 In Updates

Fight Against Deceptive Lending in Michigan To Continue

Motion for arbitration denied; Plaintiffs paid exorbitant interest due to hidden provision Thomas Hawk via photopin cc By Aidan O’Shea Communications Specialist When Eboree Larkin, a 25-year-old single mother, accepted a 25 percent Annual Percentage Rate on her used-car payments, she expected the APR to be just that:…

July 7, 2014 In Blog

Pelican Bay Prisoners’ Class Certification Offers Hope on Solitary Confinement

photo credit: citymaus via photopin cc By Adrian Alvarez Goldberg-Robb Attorney Is holding a prisoner in solitary confinement for more than a decade cruel and unusual punishment? That’s the question that a federal judge in Ashker v. Brown is set to decide. Recently, the judge said…