Public Justice

October 21, 2016 In Blog Consumers' Rights, Forced Arbitration

How One Consumer Beat Back the Zombie Debt Horde

Image by Adam Fuller via Flickr By Karla Gilbride Staff Attorney Last year, I blogged about how the zombie debt industry preys on consumers by buying up old debts from hospitals and credit card companies for pennies on the dollar, with very little information about whether those…

October 13, 2016 In Blog Consumers' Rights

FTC Wins Record Judgment Against Payday Lender Notorious For Hiding Behind Tribal Immunity

By Kyra Taylor Fellow On September 30, a federal court in Nevada ordered payday lending mogul Scott Tucker and his affiliated companies to pay $1.3 Billion to the FTC for deceiving consumers about the costs associated with their loans and unlawfully charging them enormous hidden…

October 12, 2016 In Blog Consumers' Rights

Public Justice Fights for Prescription Drug Victims in California Supreme Court

Generic drugs, anyone? If you care about access to justice, you might want to just say no. In a suit we’ve filed on behalf of twin boys, the California Supreme Court case will determine whether victims of inadequately labeled generic drugs can seek compensation for their injuries from brand-name drug manufacturers. The stakes couldn’t be higher: over 80 percent of all drugs consumed in this country are generic.

October 3, 2016 In Blog Consumers' Rights, Forced Arbitration, Workers' Rights

Hillary Clinton Calls for an End to Forced Arbitration Clauses

In a speech in Toledo, Ohio, presidential candidate Hillary Clinton called for an end to forced arbitration clauses that are increasingly used by corporations to keep consumers, and workers, out of court.

September 16, 2016 In Updates Civil Rights & Liberties

Teaching Schools About Title IX

Public Justice client Kamaria Downs ensured pregnant students’ rights were respected at her college In an NBC News story today, former Claflin University student Kamaria Downs tells her story of being kicked off campus for being pregnant while attending Claflin University, a South Carolina college…

September 9, 2016 In Blog The Environment

Fighting Environmental Disaster, from Utah to Oklahoma

By Richard Webster Staff Attorney, Environmental Enforcement Project As both our site and the Salt Lake City Tribune reported, Public Justice filed a suit in March, on behalf of HEAL Utah and the Sierra Club, to ensure the cleanup of millions of tons of toxic…

September 6, 2016 In Blog The Environment

The Largest Manmade Earthquake in History

It’s now official. Seismologists have just announced that Saturday’s earthquake was the strongest ever felt in Oklahoma. The 5.6-magnitude quake struck early Saturday morning, rattling Pawnee, Oklahoma and the surrounding area. If this weekend’s quake is directly linked to fracking in the state – as we believe it will be – it will also go down in the record books as the largest manmade earthquake in history.

August 29, 2016 In Blog Class Action Preservation, Consumers' Rights, Forced Arbitration

Protecting Consumers from the Fine Print

Public Justice Files Comments Supporting CFPB Rule to Limit Abusive Forced Arbitration Provisions By Karla Gilbride Cartwright-Baron Staff Attorney With big banks making millions in profits while wages stagnate and the wealth gap continues to widen, many Americans feel that the system is rigged and…

August 16, 2016 In Blog Civil Rights & Liberties

Justice for Rafael: An Update

A court has now cleared the way for a trial to finally begin, more than 7 years after Rafael Solis died while being held in the Webb County, Texas jail. Every excuse, tactic and legal argument the jailors’ attorneys have used to delay the case have now been rejected. And Rafael’s family is closer than ever to getting their day in court.

August 12, 2016 In Updates

Anne McGinness Kearse Becomes Public Justice President

Public Justice’s new President, Anne Kearse, began her path to becoming one of the country’s leading plaintiffs’ attorneys on the front lines of the public interest movement researching and advocating for the New York Public Interest Research Group while working on her undergraduate degree in Consumer Studies.

Later, she worked as a litigation researcher and paralegal, first, for law firms representing school districts and building owners in litigation to remove deadly asbestos-containing products from their buildings. She then represented workers who developed deadly diseases as a result of working with these asbestos-containing products— a job that was both personally fulfilling and helped to build and hone her litigation skills.