Justice

News Mar 20, 2017

Two New Bills Quietly Slipping Through Congress That Will Give Big Pharma Unlimited Power & Zero Accountability

If you’re hurt by a pharmaceutical, you can sue the company that made the drug, and be compensated for your losses, right? Most people assume that is the way the justice system works, but the reality is that it’s difficult, and in many cases impossible, for victims of pharmaceutical companies (and other big corporations/industries) to gain compensation or justice. There are many aspects of the …

News Mar 15, 2017

Fed Suit Against Quicken Loans Passes First Test

The Justice Department can pursue its controversial fraud case against Detroit-based mortgage lender Quicken Loans, a judge ruled Thursday, but he substantially narrowed the time frame covered by the suit. In the first major ruling since the case reached a Detroit courtroom, U.S. District Judge Mark A. Goldsmith denied …

News Mar 8, 2017

GOP Pushes Bill Inhibiting Americans From Filing Class-Action Lawsuits Against Large Corporations

In recent years, companies have increasingly relied on legal fine print to avoid the lawsuits, inserting language into contracts requiring disputes to be settled by private arbitrators, not the courts. In the final years of the Obama administration, regulators moved to limit those arbitration clauses, proposing rules that ban them from student loan agreements and some financial services. “If …

News Mar 6, 2017

Unfairness in Class Action: A New Attack on Civil Rights – Center for American Progress

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 …

Settlements Feb 27, 2017

DOJ Settles Zoning Lawsuit Against City; Mosque Construction Will Proceed

The Justice Department has settled a religious discrimination lawsuit brought late in President Obama’s term against a Michigan city for turning down an Islamic center’s zoning request to build a mosque. The government lawsuit came after the American Islamic Community Center sued the city of Sterling Heights in August over the denial. The center wanted to build in the city as they …

Lawsuits Feb 24, 2017

Judge Denies Request to Delay Texas Voter ID Lawsuit

A long-running lawsuit over Texas’ contentious voter ID law will move forward in federal court, even as the Republican-controlled Legislature considers how best to modify it. A federal judge on Friday denied a request from the U.S. Justice Department and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to delay the case. The Trump administration joined with …

News Feb 21, 2017

Border-Shooting Lawsuit May Divide U.S. Supreme Court Justices

U.S. Supreme Court justices indicated they are divided in a case over a shooting across the Mexican border, hinting they may split 4-4 and leave high court nominee Neil Gorsuch to cast the deciding vote. Hearing arguments in Washington, the justices weighed an appeal from the parents of Sergio Hernandez, a Mexican teenager who was shot to death by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in 2010. The family …

Lawsuits Feb 17, 2017

Feds Join Whistleblower Lawsuit Claiming UnitedHealth Overcharged Medicare

Reuters is reporting that the U.S. Justice Department has joined a whistleblower lawsuit against Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group that claims the country’s largest health insurer and its units and affiliates overcharged Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars, a law firm representing the whistleblower said on Thursday. “We reject these more than five-year-old claims and will contest them …

News Feb 13, 2017

Trump Administration May Change Stance on Transgender Bathrooms for Students

Trump Administration May Change Stance On Transgender Bathrooms For Students The topic of transgender bathroom rights has been a hotly contested issue between states and the federal government since North Carolina passed a law last March that would require individuals only to use the bathrooms that matched their sex as assigned at birth. Though the Justice Department sued the state, there …

News Feb 10, 2017

U.S. Chamber Commends House Introduction of Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act

Lisa A. Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), made the following statement today about the introduction of the “Fairness in Class Action Litigation Act of 2017” (H.R. 985) in the U.S. House of Representatives: “Class action lawsuits were created to make it easier for plaintiffs to get justice. But today, class actions are rife with …