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No, You Can’t Just Write a Contract that Says No Federal Law Applies
When James Hayes took out a loan for $2525 via the Western Sky lending company, he probably expected, like most consumers do, that he would be charged some interest. But by any reasonable standard, the 139.12% rate he was effectively charged—turning his initial $2525 loan into a $14,093 debt—was jaw-dropping.
Public Justice
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First Round Goes to Citizens in Federal Court Fight Against Wyoming Ag Gag Laws
In late December, we won the first round in our federal constitutional challenge to Wyoming laws that make it a crime for citizens to gather data about environmental pollution from public land. U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl denied the State’s motion to dismiss the suit challenging the laws, citing “serious concerns” about the statutes’ constitutionality.
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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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Same Story, New Ending: Court Overturns Order Sealing Chrysler Defect Records
photo credit: dharder9475 via photopin cc Jennifer Bennett Budd-Kazan Attorney It’s the same story, over and over again: Corporation conceals deadly defect. Someone dies, and their family sues. Corporation settles quietly. Court records are sealed. Nobody finds out. More people are hurt; more people sue;…
A Payday Lender’s Race to the Bottom
by Gabriel Hopkins Thornton-Robb Attorney Scott Tucker loves fast cars. That might be why he raced to the bottom as the owner and operator of a payday lending business whose complicated and lopsided repayment plan duped millions of consumers. Now the details of this operation…
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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…
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December 3, 2015 In Blog
In Organic Labeling Ruling, Cal. Supreme Court Ensures Corporations Can’t Duck Consumer Fraud Suits
By Leslie Brueckner Senior Attorney The California Supreme Court has just issued a groundbreaking unanimous decision in Quesada v. Herb Thyme Farms, Inc., upholding the rights of consumers to sue a grower – Herb Thyme – for intentionally mislabeling conventionally grown herbs as “organic” and…
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…
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An Energy Company’s Fake Farm, Watered with Heavy Metal Rain
An image from last week’s notice letter. By Richard Webster Staff Attorney, Environmental Enforcement Project Until I saw it, it was hard to believe that in the heart of Utah, PacifiCorp, a local power company, was running a fake farm watered with coal ash waste that…