Paul Bland recently spoke to the Sinclair Broadcasting Group about the Takata airbag recall, which affects over 17 million cars. In some airbags, the device becomes defective and causes sharp shards to explode in the face of the passenger during a crash. These airbags have been linked to 13 deaths and more than 100 injuries.
By Gabriel Hopkins Thornton-Robb Attorney Photo by Mike Rastiello on Flickr Arbitration is nearly everywhere. For the millions of Texas residents who own a home, one of the few places that they don’t encounter forced arbitration clauses is in their homeowner’s insurance policies. But now, Texas…
Last month, Executive Director Paul Bland spoke at Breaking Through Power, a conference organized by consumer advocate Ralph Nader that brought together dozens of voices in the movement to improve civic mobilization and democratic integrity. Paul speaks about our work fighting injustices like forced arbitration…
By Arthur Bryant Chairman When corporations or the government value money over lives and safety, injure people, or discriminate against them, the courts are where they can be held accountable. But corporate and government wrongdoers don’t want to be held accountable. That’s why, for decades,…
The five finalist cases for Public Justice’s Trial Lawyer of the Year Award include landmark cases dealing with workers’ rights, the horrifying consequences of product defects, America’s money bail system, financial institution funding of terrorism, and civil rights.
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.
One of the first things I learned in law school was that a corporation’s “continuous and systematic” economic activities in a particular state were sufficient to subject the company to personal jurisdiction in that state. That’s what the U.S. Supreme Court held way back in 1945. And that that remained essentially undisturbed for over 70 years. In 2014, however, the Supreme Court gave corporations a brand-new defense that they are now employing with great gusto in courts across the country. Public Justice is challenging that in a newly filed amicus brief, taking on corporations that are attempting to limit injured plaintiffs’ access to justice by advocating a narrow reading of Supreme Court precedent to effectively deny injury victims access to state courts.
Corporations took a shot at gutting America’s privacy laws, and they missed. The U.S. Supreme has found that consumers can bring claims for statutory damages (where Congress says that if a corporation breaks some law, it must pay a fixed sum, even if the claims are hard to prove), even if the consumer has not lost money or suffered a personal injury. In doing so, they rejected several arguments from corporate America that would have closed the courthouse doors to consumers.
Richard Messina signed a contract to work for two years as Vice President of Sales for North Central Distributing, a company that sells home décor and furniture under the name Yosemite Home Decor. When Yosemite fired him after six months, Mr. Messina filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination in Minnesota state court. But when the district court in Minnesota denied its transfer motion—voila! New rule! Yosemite announced for the first time that Mr. Messina had also signed an arbitration agreement and that the case actually could not continue in court at all and had to be decided by a private arbitrator instead.
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.