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Public Justice Speaks Out for Consumer Rights and the CFPB on Capitol Hill
Two weeks ago, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau unveiled a new rule that would prohibit lenders from including forced arbitration clauses with class action bans in their lending contracts. Today, Public Justice’s Executive Director, Paul Bland, will testify in front of the House’s Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee in support of this rule.
Updates
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New Rule: Fighting the Fine Print
After years of discussions and debates, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is unveiling a major new rule that will prohibit lenders from including forced arbitration clauses with class action bans in their lending contracts.
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Public Justice Files Suit to Clean Up Coal Ash Contamination at Utah Plant
Public Justice has filed suit, on behalf of HEAL Utah and the Sierra Club, to ensure the cleanup of millions of tons of toxic coal ash waste at a central Utah power plant following decades of mismanagement. The suit comes after an October letter asking PacifiCorp to address a litany of problems that have contaminated land and water at the Huntington coal-burning power plant.
According to the complaint, PacifiCorp’s mismanagement in handling, transport and disposal of the coal-ash waste “have caused extensive contamination of local ground and/or surface waters, which may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to health and the environment.”
Perhaps most egregious, the suit alleges that one of the plant’s tactics for skirting its responsibilities under the Clean Water Act was the creation of a “fake farm” adjacent to the plant where alfalfa and other crops were irrigated as a means to disposing of the plant’s wastewater.
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Public Justice Files Suit to Curb Fracking-Related Seismic Activity in Oklahoma
Public Justice, working on behalf of Sierra Club, filed a federal lawsuit today against three energy companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in Oklahoma, alleging that production waste from fracking and oil production have contributed to an alarming increase in earthquake activity in the state.
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Justice for Rafael: Fighting Inmate Abuse in Texas Jails
Rafael Solis’s death ruled a homicide by county coroner Public Justice is proud to be leading the appellate team representing Maria Escamilla and her grandsons, Esteban and Rafael Solis, Jr., as they demand accountability in the death of her son and their father. Rafael Solis…
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Public Justice Representing Plaintiffs in Challenge to North Carolina ‘Anti-Sunshine’ Law
A coalition of animal protection, consumer rights, food safety, and whistleblower protection groups is challenging a North Carolina law designed to deter whistleblowers and undercover investigators from publicizing information about corporate misconduct. Public Justice is representing all of the groups in the coalition.
Under the law, organizations and journalists who conduct undercover investigations, and individuals who expose improper or criminal conduct by North Carolina employers, are susceptible to suit and substantial damages if they make such evidence available to the public or the press.
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Remington Agrees to Unseal All Documents in Cases over Fatal Defect in America’s Most Popular Rifle
Image via CNBC’s Remington Under Fire: The Reckoning. Remington Arms Company – the oldest firearms manufacturer in the country – has known for years that one of its most popular guns has a defect that can cause it to fire without the trigger ever being…
November 2, 2015
In Updates
Public Justice Warns Oklahoma Fracking Operators over Seismic Activity
Photo via Public Herald on Flickr. Notice to sue sent to companies with extraction methods linked to frequent earthquakes. Public Justice and Sierra Club today warned four companies engaged in hydraulic fracturing in Oklahoma that they must modify their practices or face a citizen lawsuit, citing…
October 28, 2015
In Updates
Public Justice’s Jim Hecker Testifies in Support of Proposed Stream Pollution Rule
Public Justice Environmental Enforcement Project Director Jim Hecker told a Senate committee yesterday that current federal rules governing stream pollution due to mountaintop removal mining are outdated and must be replaced by rules that “incorporate the best available science” and would successfully prevent “serious, persistent…
October 7, 2015
In Updates
CFPB Proposes Barring Arbitration Clauses that Stop Class Actions
photo credit: plastic please via photopin (license) Potential change would open courthouse doors to tens of millions stripped of right to sue By Aidan O’SheaCommunications Specialist On Wednesday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed rules designed to prevent consumer financial companies from barring consumers’ ability to file, or join, a…