Class-Action

Spokeo Case Argued Before the Supreme Court — It Could Become the Death Knell For Many Statutory Consumer Claims

November 8, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

By now it’s common knowledge that you shouldn’t believe everything you see on the Internet. At the same time, many people regularly use the Internet to look up information on people, places, and businesses.

One Web directory, Spokeo Inc., is currently facing a lawsuit for posting inaccurate information of Thomas Robins on their website. Robins’s profile on Spokeo listed him as being in his 50s with a graduate degree, employed in a professional or technical field, with very strong economic health, a very high wealth level, and a wife and children.

Although Robins acknowledges his profile did have some accurate information, he says he was unemployed at the time the false information was posted in 2010, he does not have a graduate degree, is not married, has no children, and is not in his 50s. Continue reading ›

Federal Appeals Court Rules that Damages are Sufficient for Data Breach Class Action to Proceed Against Nieman Marcus

November 2, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

The rulings made by appellate courts can affect many decisions to come in rulings made by lower courts all over the country. In a recent data breach lawsuit against Neiman Marcus, the retailer argued the ruling made by the Seventh Circuit Court could have long-term effects on data breach law if the court failed to change its ruling.

The court denied Neiman Marcus’s appeal and let its initial decision stand.

The consumer lawsuit consists of a proposed class of about 350,000 plaintiffs who allegedly suffered financial damages as a result of a security breach of Neiman Marcus’s systems in 2013. The plaintiffs allege the retailer did not take all necessary precautions in preventing or mitigating a security breach that exposed customers’ payment card details. The data breach lawsuit also alleges Neiman Marcus did not notify its customers of the data breach in a timely manner, once the security attack had happened. Continue reading ›

Auto Fraud Class Actions Pile Up Against VW NPR Reports

October 30, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

NPR reports:

MARTIN: This past week, the German car giant Volkswagen admitted to cheating emissions tests with a device built into VW diesel engines. Just hours after the story broke, a Seattle-based law firm filed a consumer class-action suit against Volkswagen. And by Friday, the number of federal suits that had been filed against VW had reached at least 34. That number seems to be climbing. Here to talk through the number of class-action suits is data journalist Mona Chalabi.

Hi, Mona.

CHALABI: Hi, Rachel.

MARTIN: Explain this number. Where did these 34 cases come from?

CHALABI: All over the country, actually. There’s been a bit of a gold rush for this – and I can tell you a little bit about the gold kind of later on. But for now, I just want to explain really quickly what a class-action lawsuit is because it wasn’t completely clear to me. So it’s a type of lawsuit where one or several people sue on behalf of a much larger group. And it’s that larger group that is known as the class. And in the case of Volkswagen, almost 500,000 cars have been recalled in the U.S. alone.

MARTIN: Is there any precedent for this?

CHALABI: Yeah, absolutely. So class-action lawsuits of this kind are sort of common. In 2012, Toyota agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle a class-action suit to car owners who said they lost money because of a fault in their vehicles. It was a really serious flaw as well. The car actually accelerated automatically, and that fault resulted in at least one death.

MARTIN: As you mentioned, Toyota paid out over a billion dollars. Does that mean that individuals can get big payouts in these kinds of cases?

CHALABI: They can do, but not necessarily. So one plaintiff in that particular case, a computer science student called Jonathan Sourbeer, said he got a check for $20.91 from Toyota for his vehicle flaw. And I think what’s really striking about that is when you compare those sums to what the lawyers are getting. So in that case, there were 85 plaintiff lawyers who, between them, managed to get $227 million in fees and costs from Toyota.

NPR Reports: “Firm Accused Of Illegal Practices That Push Families Into Foreclosure.”

October 14, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

NPR reports:

According to Moody’s Analytics, there were 700,000 foreclosures last year. And some of those people probably didn’t need to lose their homes. Even now, more than six years after the housing crash, lawyers for homeowners say mortgage companies are still making mistakes and foreclosing on homes when they shouldn’t be.

Ocwen Financial Corp. is facing an investigation by regulators and a new lawsuit over its treatment of homeowners facing foreclosures. The class-action suit alleges that Ocwen has been charging marked-up, illegal fees and unfairly pushing homeowners into foreclosure.

Arbitration Agreements May be Banned to Protect Consumers Rights to Pursue Class Actions and Jury Verdicts

October 13, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

The class action lawsuit is a powerful tool for plaintiffs, particularly consumers. The costs associated with filing a lawsuit are too high to justify filing for a small claim, because the cost of the lawsuit would be greater than the potential payout. Class actions address this issue by allowing many plaintiffs with the same, or similar complaints to file one lawsuit together. With enough class members, the combined claims are often more than enough to justify filing a lawsuit. It also provides the plaintiffs with greater leverage against their defendants, who tend to be large corporations with a team of lawyers at their disposal.

Big businesses have been arguing against class actions and trying to make it more difficult for class actions to make it to the courts. One of the ways they have done this is by requiring consumers to sign contracts that include arbitration clauses in which the consumer agrees to settle all disputes with the company in arbitration, which does not allow class actions. Continue reading ›

Sony Settling Class Action Lawsuits for Data Breach

October 10, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

In today’s increasingly digital age, it has become easier than ever for hackers to gain access to people’s personal information, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft. Most major credit card companies offer monitoring services to protect customers from fraudulent charges, but they charge an extra fee for these services and many people don’t want to pay the extra fee if they don’t have to.

More often than not, large companies are the targets of cyberattacks, but it’s not usually the company that experiences any negative outcomes from the attacks. Instead, it’s the customers and/or employees whose personal information was compromised in the attack who suffer. The companies rarely experience any consequences of these attacks until someone files a lawsuit against the company for failing to take the proper security measures to protect against these data breaches. Continue reading ›

Ashley Madison Sued in Data Breach Class Actions

October 8, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

Class actions are an extremely useful tool that benefit both plaintiffs and the courts. When plaintiffs suffer small damages that are not large enough to justify the expenses associated with filing a lawsuit, a class action allows multiple plaintiffs with similar complaints to combine their claims into one lawsuit. This also saves the courts time and money by preventing them from getting flooded with numerous lawsuits of the same nature.

Companies who conduct business all over the country sometimes face multiple class action lawsuits in different courts. Depending on where the jurisdiction falls, these class action lawsuits can sometimes be combined into one, large, nation-wide class action lawsuit. Continue reading ›

Our Chicago Data Breach and Privacy Protection Class Action Lawyers Bring Class Actions in Data Breach Cases to Protect Victims Rights – Contact One of Our Data Breach Attorneys if You Are Victim of a Data Breach Including the Ashley Madison Data Breach

October 7, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

Data Breach Cases

We are investigating various data breach cases and will bring class actions on behalf of victims of data breaches such as the Target, Ashley Madison, Sony and Home Depot data breaches.

Contact Us if You Are a Victim of the Ashley Madison Data Breach or of Another Data Breach

Continental and United Flight Attendants are Pursuing Overtime Class Action — Our Chicago Overtime Attorneys Pursue Wage and Hour Class Actions and Collective Actions

September 20, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), every employee is entitled to receive accurate itemized wage statements along with their paychecks. These wage statements need to specify: the employee’s hourly rate; the pay period; the number of hours the employee worked in that pay period; the total wages paid, and any deductions made to the employee’s wages (such as taxes, health insurance, etc.).

Employers are required to provide these wage statements so their workers can keep track of the hours they worked and the money they made. It also helps them estimate how much money they’ll make in future pay periods so they can plan their finances accordingly. Continue reading ›

Class Actions an Avenue for Redress of Consumer Rights

August 3, 2015 | Peter S. Lubin and James V. DiTommaso

Class action lawsuits were designed to give individuals leverage against large corporate defendants. A large company with billions of dollars and a team of lawyers at their disposal stands a much better chance of winning a lawsuit than a single employee or consumer with a claim that’s only worth a small amount of money.

Big businesses have long lamented this attempt to level the playing field, complaining that class actions exist for the sole purpose of allowing plaintiffs to come together to pick on large companies. Although defendants choose to settle class actions, rather than risk the time and expense of litigating them, it is possible for large corporations to get a fair hearing in court. Continue reading ›