May 1, 2016

Judge Wants Rahm Emanuel to Testify in Police Whistleblower Lawsuit

Two Chicago policemen are suing the city of Chicago, claiming that the police department retaliated against them after they cooperated with a federal investigation into corrupt officers, and now the judge wants the mayor to take the stand, the Guardian reported. The two officers had helped the FBI uncover a narcotics team that was collecting money from drug dealers in exchange for protection. …


Former Scranton Housing Inspector Appeals Dismissal of Retaliation Lawsuit

A former Scranton housing inspector has appealed a federal judge’s ruling that dismissed her political retaliation and gender discrimination lawsuit. Patricia Jennings-Fowler contends U.S. District Judge Malachy Mannion erred when he ruled she failed to present sufficient evidence to support her claims. Ms. Jennings-Fowler had worked for the city in various capacities since 2009.


Fort Worth Council to Vote on Settling Chesapeake Lawsuit

The Fort Worth City Council on Tuesday will vote on settling a lawsuit in which it claimed Chesapeake Energy Corporation cheated taxpayers out of millions of dollars in royalties for natural gas it drilled under city land. It is not immediately clear how much the proposed settlement is worth. A notation on the council agenda said the terms will be made public but did not specify when.


How to Defeat the Repeat Consumer Class Action Plaintiff

Airlines have frequent flyer programs, restaurants and coffee shops have customer loyalty programs, and plaintiff’s class action firms have repeat class action plaintiffs. These frequent class plaintiffs are either unlucky or they go looking for trouble. See Beyond Systems, Inc. v. Kraft Foods, Inc., 777 F.3d 712, 714 (2015) (noting that email spam litigation accounted for 90% of plaintiff’s …



Facebook Must Face Class-Action for Scanning ‘Private’ Messages

Facebook users can proceed with a class-action accusing the company of violating their privacy by scanning messages that users send to each other on the company’s platform, a federal judge has ruled. But U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton in the Northern District of California also ruled that the users can’t seek monetary damages on a class-wide basis, because assessing damages requires …


Revised Court Ordered Date Deadlines for Requests for Exclusions, Objections, Claim Form Filing and Hearing Date. If You Sold or Purchased Wyeth Shares in 2008, Your Rights May Be Affected by a Class Action Settlement.

BIRMINGHAM RETIREMENT AND RELIEF SYSTEM, et al., Plaintiffs, v. S.A.C. CAPITAL ADVISORS, L.P., et al., Defendants. No. 13 Civ. 2459 (VM) (KNF) ECF CASE. REVISED COURT ORDERED DATE DEADLINES FOR REQUESTS FOR EXCLUSIONS, OBJECTIONS, CLAIM FORM FILING AND HEARING DATE. SUMMARY NOTICE OF (I) PROPOSED SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION AND PLAN OF ALLOCATION; (II) SETTLEMENT …


Appeals Panel: Fresh Look Needed at TCPA Class Actions vs Insurers, So Don’t Only Enrich Lawyers

A panel of state appellate justices could have simply found an insurer wasn’t obligated to pay to cover a $4 million settlement reached to end a lawsuit brought by a suburban engineering firm that claimed it had received so-called “junk fax” advertisements. But the justices used the occasion to also send a message to the lawyers it says are responsible for a “proliferation” of potential junk …



Banks Must Defend Libor Lawsuits After Judges Warn of Impact

Sixteen of the world’s largest banks including JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Citigroup Inc. must face antitrust lawsuits accusing them of hurting investors who bought securities tied to Libor by rigging an interest-rate benchmark, a ruling that an appeals court warned could devastate them. The appellate judges reversed a lower-court ruling on one issue — whether the investors had adequately claimed …