Public Justice has joined as co-counsel in the Ninth Circuit appeal of a decision dismissing, on federal preemption grounds, a putative consumer class action involving allegedly falsely labeled dietary supplements. The supplement in question, “TruNature Ginkgo Biloba,” is labeled and advertised as “support[ing] alertness & memory” and “help[ing] maintain healthy blood flow to the brain…
Public Justice’s Leslie Brueckner is co-lead counsel in this California Supreme Court appeal that concerned an issue of enormous importance to consumers and tort victims throughout the State: whether the “economic-loss rule” precludes recovery of purely economic damages arising out one of the most serious environmental disasters in California (if not U.S.) history. The appeal…
Ninety percent of the prescription drugs consumed in the United States are generic forms of brand-name drugs. But under U.S. Supreme Court case law, generic drug companies can’t be sued for failing to warn consumers of the dangers of their drug, no matter how inadequate the label may be. Public Justice was lead counsel before…
In this consumer class action, the plaintiffs alleged that Herb Thyme Farms, Inc. deliberately mixed organic herbs with non-organic herbs and sold them to the public as “100% organic.” Herb Thyme argued that the consumers’ state law claims were preempted by federal law governing certification of organic products. Herb Thyme Farms had one small farm…
This is a putative class action on behalf of people who purchased Samsung’s Galaxy S3 smartphone before learning that many of the technologies used in the phone allegedly infringed upon Apple patents—allegations which resulted in a multi-million-dollar jury verdict against Samsung. In response to this consumer class action, Samsung invoked its arbitration clause, which was…
This was an appeal to the Maryland Court of Appeals to keep a consumer class action against debt buyer Midland Funding in court and to prevent Midland from forcing the dispute into arbitration on an individual, non-class basis. Midland had operated in Maryland for two and a half years without the license that all collection…
This is an appeal involving the enforceability of a payday lender’s arbitration agreement that purports to require arbitration in a forum that doesn’t exist, and pursuant to rules that don’t exist. Army veteran Joshua Parnell brought a class action against a predatory lender relating to its 233% interest rates and illegal origination fees. The lender,…
In an enforcement action by the Federal Trade Commission against payday lender AMG Services for charging consumers undisclosed and inflated fees, the court found that lenders violated federal law when they misrepresented to consumers how much loans would cost them. We represented Americans for Financial Reform (AFR) as an intervenor in the case, and successfully…