President Donald Trump’s budget proposal may eliminate the single greatest funder of civil legal aid in the United States, the Legal Services Corporation—a long-standing goal of Vice President Mike Pence. At the same time, Congress is working to block Americans from seeking justice on their own with the Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017. This bill was drafted to address an …
There is some bad news for people who fret our society is excessively litigious. A startup in the normally stuffy insurance industry has just made bringing a lawsuit less risky. Level Insurance ( as in “level playing field’’), founded by trial attorneys and law partners Larry Bassuk and Justin Leto of Miami, Florida, now offers a Litigation Cost Protection’ policy that will pay some of the …
Senate Republicans plan to deliver a final blow Monday to the Labor Department’s so-called blacklisting rule. The Senate will vote on whether to overturn the controversial Obama-era regulation through the Congressional Review Act, which empowers Republicans to roll back recently published rules without Democratic support. The House has already voted to strike down the rule.
Photo Credit: palidachan / Shutterstock.com As many as 60,000 immigrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement could play a role in a class-action lawsuit accusing a private prison company of violating federal anti-slavery laws. The lawsuit alleges that detained immigrants awaiting court dates were forced to work for $1 per day or for free, on threat of solitary confinement. The …
South Carolina is now one of 40 states to accuse six drug-makers of conspiring to inflate prices and fix the market for two generic drugs used to treat infections and diabetes, in a federal lawsuit. Attorney General Alan Wilson announced Sunday that the Palmetto State backs the claims echoed nationwide that the companies “entered into illegal conspiracies in order to unreasonably restrain …
A man whose clothes caught fire after he was shot with a Taser in Chesterfield County has filed a $95 million lawsuit against the police department. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch (http://tinyurl.com/z8xm4v4), the lawsuit claims that the department has unconstitutionally misused electronic stun guns for years, using them on people in handcuffs, the mentally ill and unarmed people on …
A motorist who accidentally drives a car into street protesters could be immune from civil liability under a bill being considered in the Rhode Island House of Representatives. Rep. Justin Price, an Exeter Republican, introduced legislation on Wednesday that says drivers won’t be liable for injuring protesters if they’re blocking traffic in a public right-of-way. The immunity would only benefit …
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission defended its regulations over workplace wellness programs, arguing federal anti-discrimination and medical privacy laws allow employers to ask for personal health information for such programs. The EEOC issued final rules in May allowing employers to hit workers with substantial penalties if they refuse to participate in wellness programs and …
Employees from Fiat Chrysler Automobiles in the U.S. say they were discriminated against because of their age, according to lawyers representing the workers in a lawsuit. The latest round of performance evaluations from the company led to employees over the age of 55 being unfairly treated, alleges Michigan-based civil rights law firm, Akeel and Valentine, PLC. The firm filed a class-action …
An Aiken County jury returned a $13.75 million verdict Wednesday against Aiken Regional Medical Centers in a case in which a woman lost both legs above the knee, her left arm below the elbow and the tips of her fingers on her right hand. The jury found the hospital was “grossly negligent or reckless, willful or wanton in its acts or omissions” in the case of Seletha Gartrell, a 54-year-old …