Blog

March 22, 2013 In Blog

Preventing further stream pollution from coal

By Jim Hecker, Environmental Enforcement Project Director As you drive into Charleston, West Virginia, on Interstate 64, there used to be a billboard that read, “YES, COAL” and below that, “Clean, Carbon-Neutral Coal.” It was paid for by a company that supplies equipment to coal…

March 21, 2013 In Blog

It’s a good thing: U.S. Supreme Court limits states’ ability to seize Medicaid recipients’ tort recoveries

By Leslie Brueckner, Senior Attorney It’s not every day that the U.S. Supreme Court issues a ruling that’s good news for personal injury victims. But yesterday was one of those days. And it’s a ruling that could even bode well for our ERISA case soon…

March 20, 2013 In Blog

Unanswered questions remain after CAFA decision in Supreme Court

By Victoria Ni, Senior Attorney The U.S. Supreme Court has issued its first-ever decision interpreting the 2005 Class Action Fairness Act. Yesterday’s 9-0 ruling held that courts should disregard written promises by plaintiffs who are trying to represent a class in state court that the…

March 19, 2013 In Blog

Corporations to humans: Arbitration is good enough for you, but not for us

By Paul Bland, Senior Attorney A big part of my job is listening to advocates for huge corporations explain how great arbitration is. Corporate lawyers are always insisting that arbitration is cheaper, fairer and faster than court. Some of them make it sound like arbitration…

March 18, 2013 In Blog

Making a difference one gob pile at a time

By Richard Webster, Power-Cotchett Attorney When visiting the La Belle coal ash dump in Pennsylvania for the first time last fall, I thought I had misheard. Why were people talking about a “huge pile of gob”? In the British vernacular, “gob” is slang for spit…

March 15, 2013 In Blog

When generic drugs harm patients, can’t count on FDA; lawsuits play role

By Claire Prestel, Staff Attorney On Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court will hear argument in a case called Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett, which will decide whether generic drug makers can be held responsible for the harm their products cause. Public Justice joined an amicus…

March 14, 2013 In Blog

Top 5 reasons I love my job

By Leslie Brueckner, Senior Attorney Sitting in my office today, it just hit me: I’ve been working at Public Justice for almost 20 years. Madness. On the brink of entering my third decade here, it’s safe to say that I actually love my job (well…

March 13, 2013 In Blog

Arbitration: not a silver bullet

By Leah Nicholls, Kazan-Budd Attorney Last week, I traveled to Rockville, Maryland, to speak with the employment law section of the Montgomery County Bar Association. The topic was arbitration agreements in employment contracts. We discussed the types of arbitration clauses that make an arbitration agreement…

March 11, 2013 In Blog

Dear Corporations – Learn how to protect yourselves from class actions! Sincerely, the AAA

By Paul Bland, Senior Attorney I want to talk about judges, arbitrators and neutrality. Imagine a federal district court sending a mass e-mail to a whole bunch of plaintiffs’ lawyers. The e-mail says the court will hold a webinar instructing plaintiffs’ attorneys on how they…

March 7, 2013 In Blog

In the battle over class action bans, the latest casualty may be logic

By Leslie Bailey, Staff Attorney As an undergraduate philosophy major, I lived for all things logical. I relished Alfred North Whitehead and wrote essays seeking to prove that propositions about the future are true at the time they are stated. There was something deeply reassuring…