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April 4, 2014 In Blog

Coal Ash Cleanup at Little Blue Run Requires Highest Bond Ever

By Richard Webster, Power-Cotchett Attorney, Environmental Enforcement Project The cleanup of the 1,000-acre Little Blue Run wet coal ash impoundment, the largest in the United States, took another step forward yesterday with the announcement that Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has approved the closure permit…

April 3, 2014 In Blog

With Free Coffee from McDonald’s, Will You Forget the Workers?

By Victoria W. Ni, Senior Attorney, and Sarah Belton, Cartwright-Baron Attorney Fast-food giant McDonald’s is making headlines this week as its stores offer free coffee during the first part of April. In what is viewed by some business analysts as a desperate grab for breakfast…

April 3, 2014 In Blog

Join Public Justice Today and Get a Free Month!

GUEST BLOG By Michael Swanson, Public Justice VolunteerPresident and CEO, Advocate Capital, Inc. I have the privilege of being a co-captain of one of the Public Justice Telethon teams this year. Dan Bryson, Tara Sutton and I are leading the “Rustlers” as…

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…