Court

Uber Wins Halt to N.Y. Price-Fixing Lawsuit During Appeal

A federal judge on Friday granted a request by Uber Technologies Inc and its chief executive officer to put a passenger’s price-fixing lawsuit against them on hold, while they appeal his refusal to let them arbitrate the dispute. Calling his decision a “close call,” U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in Manhattan said the defendants had not made a “strong …



Is BCBS of Michigan’s Settlement Fair to Patients?

A deal involving Michigan’s largest health insurance company and dozens of hospitals cost patients and businesses an extra $118 million, an expert estimates. But those insurance customers will likely get little to no compensation from the consequential settlements, Target 8 …


Residents Want Federal Judge to Throw Out Saint-Gobain Motion to Dismiss Class Action Suit

Residents who filed a class action lawsuit over PFOA contamination want a federal court in Vermont to throw out a company’s motion to dismiss the case. Attorneys for Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics had previously argued the case should be dismissed or stayed because the company challenged the state’s drinking water standard for PFOA, a man-made chemical that has been found …


Peter Thiel & Y Combinator Fund a “Litigation Financing” Startup to Make Money Off Other Peoples’ Lawsuits

Legalist is a startup founded by Thiel Fellow Eva Shang and Christian Haigh, backed by Y Combinator: it will use data-mining to identify people who have been legally wronged by deep-pocketed aggressors and offer to finance their litigation in return for a share of the winnings. report this ad This tactic, called “champerty,” used to be illegal, but as it has morphed into the more thrusting, …


Feds Must Respond to Lawsuit Claiming IRS “Peeping Toms” Raided Health Records

More than three years ago, a mysterious company filed a mysterious lawsuit against “John Does 1-15” with a pretty outrageous claim. The lawsuit alleged that the IRS raided the company on March 11, 2011, and that agents in the course of an investigation of a former employee stole more than 60 million medical records of more than 10 million Americans. “After being put on notice of the illicit …


Starbucks Iced Drink Lawsuit Will Not Have Its Day in Court

Starbucks’ legal department ought to be sipping celebratory Frappuccinos right now, because a proposed class-action lawsuit against the coffee giant was just dismissed. Filed back in May in California federal court, the suit alleged Starbucks misrepresents the size of its iced beverages: While the menu advertises a tall as 12 ounces and a grande as 16 ounces, et al, the plaintiffs said that …


U.S. Appeals Court Strikes Down Ernst & Young Class Action Waiver

Ernst & Young LLP [ERNY.UL] cannot require its employees to give up their rights to pursue work-related claims together, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday, giving a major boost to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board’s campaign against so-called class action waivers. Companies have increasingly included provisions in employment contracts forcing workers to arbitrate …


US Appeals Court Rules Against EY’s Use of Class Action Wavers

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled 2-1 against EY, making it the second appellate court to support the NLRB’s position that federal labor law prohibits workers’ arbitration agreements from including class action waivers. On the other hand, two appellate courts have rejected the NLRB’s view, making it likely that the U.S. Supreme Court will …


Ninth Circuit Invalidates Class Waiver in Arbitration Agreement

In a ruling that widens the divide between federal appellate courts, the Ninth Circuit sided today with the Seventh Circuit and the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) in holding that the class action waiver provision of a company’s arbitration agreement with employees violates the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”). Prior to this decision, the Seventh Circuit was alone in its dissention …