Public Justice

May 1, 2012 In Updates

Public Justice Wins Legal Fight Against Health Insurer’s Attempt to Seize Benefits from Injury Victim; Third Circuit Rejects ‘Windfall’

Noting that “equity abhors a windfall,” the Third Circuit Court of Appeals held Wednesday that an employer-based health insurance plan is not entitled to 100 percent reimbursement of medical expenses when injured employees recover only a portion of their damages from a third party.The ruling…

April 30, 2012 In Updates

BASF and Corporate Law Firm Claim They Can’t Be Sued for Lying to Victims and Courts about Asbestos in Talc; Public Justice Challenges Claim of Immunity with Amicus Brief

An international chemical company and its corporate lawyers should not be allowed to get away with lying about potentially deadly asbestos in the company’s talc, says a Public Justice brief filed in New Jersey federal court on Wednesday.Public Justice’s amicus brief was filed in Williams,…

April 30, 2012 In Updates

Coal Company Will Clean Up “Biologically Impaired” Stream

The Sierra Club and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, both represented by Public Justice’s Jim Hecker, have entered into a settlement with Fola Coal Company requiring Fola, a subsidiary of CONSOL Energy, to clean up pollution in Boardtree Branch, a tributary of Twentymile Creek (pictured) in…

April 30, 2012 In Updates

EPA Urged to Shut Down Dangerous Asbestos Removal Method

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Inspector General has just signed an “Early Warning Report” that will shut down a dangerous and unapproved asbestos removal method that two EPA offices have been testing for the past seven years.The report supports what Public Justice has been arguing…

April 30, 2012 In Updates

National Labor Relations Board Rules Workplace Class Action Bans Are Unfair Labor Practice

In early January, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) decided, as Public Justice urged, that workers must be allowed to pursue legal claims as a group. The NLRB issued its decision that employers cannot require their employees to sign arbitration agreements forcing them to pursue…

April 30, 2012 In Updates

Public Justice Wins Strict New Limits on Mountaintop Removal Mine Permits

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has decided to renew a “nationwide permit” (NWP) for coal mining in Appalachia — a permit Public Justice first challenged in 1999 — with severe restrictions preventing its use for most mountaintop removal operations.For years, the Corps rubber-stamped NWPs…

April 30, 2012 In Updates

Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Nuclear Plant Operator Near NYC Failed to Consider Impact of Severe Accidents on Low-Income, Minority Populations

Public Justice’s environmental team announced today that the adjudication division of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has affirmed that all evidence submitted by the environmental group Hudson River Sloop Clearwater to show that the NRC failed to properly consider the disproportionate impact of severe accidents…

April 30, 2012 In Updates

Public Justice Asks Montana Court to Unseal Long-Secret Court Documents About Dangerous Remington Rifle

Now that a federal judge has unsealed most of the court file in a 1991 lawsuit against Remington Rifle Company, a Montana father whose young son was killed by a malfunctioning Remington rifle is asking the court to open the remainder of the file to…

April 14, 2012 In Updates

NRC and Public Justice Say Uranium Mill Licensed Under Faulty Procedure

Faced with a defiant Colorado state agency, Public Justice has told a Colorado district court that the state is wrong to claim that federal law does not apply in its licensing of a new uranium mill in southwestern Colorado. As Public Justice pointed out in a brief…

April 13, 2012 In Updates

Fourth Circuit Rules JPMorgan Must Follow State Law Protecting Consumers’ Rights

In an important breakthrough for consumer rights, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, VA, held that the National Bank Act does not mean a national bank can walk away from its own promise to follow a Maryland law whenever the bank repossesses…