Lawsuits

Long-Term Care Insurance: Less Bang, More Bucks

Mary Julia Klimenko thought she was prudent 20 years ago when she invested in a long-term care insurance policy, one she believed would help pay for the care she’d need as she aged. Now she wishes she’d banked the money instead. Her monthly premiums have nearly quadrupled over the past two years, and Klimenko, 69, is furious about the choices she’s been given: pay the higher cost, lower her …


How ‘America’s Toughest Sheriff’ Treats Mentally Ill Prisoners

On February 21, 2015, a man was booked into the Maricopa County Jail, a sprawling complex in Phoenix where the dusty Arizona landscape is interrupted by the occasional palm tree. We’ll call him by his initials: JP. According to JP’s booking report, he was experiencing auditory hallucinations during his intake, and acting “bizarre,” like he was high or drunk.




The Class Action Is Dead; Long Live the Class Action!

It’s been nearly five years since the Supreme Court decided, inWal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Dukes, that the claims of large groups of employees that involve differing calculations of damages must be litigated as individual claims, and not as a class action. At the time, and since, may pundits declared the wage-and-hour class action lawsuit dead (or at least with one foot squarely in the grave). …


U.S. Top Court Rejects Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo Class Action Appeals

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected two corporate challenges in class action cases, refusing to hear bids by Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) and Wells Fargo & Co to throw out large judgments against them. Wal-Mart had sought to get rid of a $187 million class action judgment over the retailer’s treatment of workers in Pennsylvania.


Wait, Banks Can Shut Off My Car?

Ross MacDonald
One spring evening in 2012, after getting off a shift at Señor Frog’s bar and grill in Las Vegas, Candice Smith drove to the Palace Station casino to cash her paycheck. When she returned to her car, it wouldn’t start. She knew what the problem was: the starter kill switch her lender had installed on the vehicle.


“They Had Created This Remarkable System for Taking Every Last Dime From Their Customers”

In 2011, Don Foss, perhaps the richest used-car salesman in the history of the world, commissioned a half-hour film about himself and posted it to YouTube. The Don Foss Story opens with one of his TV ads from the 1970s, ads for which Foss hired an actor to portray him. (The real Foss, who is portly and balding, says he might have played himself “if I looked like Robert Redford.”)


U.S. Judge Questions Lyft Settlement Over Driver Benefits

A U.S. judge questioned on Thursday whether a proposed class action settlement between Lyft and its California drivers is fair and raised concerns that the $12.25 million payment offered by the ride-hailing service might be too low. The 2013 lawsuit brought against Lyft by California drivers contended they should be classified as employees and therefore entitled to reimbursement …


‘His Armpit Area Started to Burn Horribly’: Old Spice Class-Action Lawsuit

At least half a dozen Canadians have joined a class-action lawsuit, which has not yet been certified, that claims Old Spice deodorants can cause chemical burns. Rodney Colley of Virginia was the first to file legal action against the men’s line and its parent company, Procter & Gamble, after he claims he noticed “severe injuries on his armpits.” “[He] just went to use the product, as I recall, …