|

When a plaintiff files a class action lawsuit (usually against a large corporation), she does not have to include a list of every single potential class member along with her complaint. In many class action lawsuits, the plaintiffs are easily identifiable, but not always and it’s the cases in which the class members are harder to identify that defendants have been attacking the plaintiffs.

Consumer class actions are usually pretty straightforward and easy to manage. If a product is defective or doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, most retailers can track the consumers who purchased that particular product and notify them of the class action lawsuit.

The process becomes significantly more difficult when the product in question is a small, inexpensive item. Consumers are less likely to keep their receipts of those purchases and the companies making the product often claim that they don’t have a direct list of customers because they sell through various retailers. They can always alert the public to these class action lawsuits and ask anyone who thinks they may fit the criteria for participating in the class to file a claim, but that’s according to corporate defendants who want to defeat class not always reliable. Defendants have been arguing that these types of class action lawsuits should be dismissed unless the plaintiffs prove they have a reliable method of identifying class members and always find holes in any reasonably reliable plan suggested. Continue reading ›

|

Although the courts are intended to be accessible to all citizens with grievances, the sad fact is they come with an increasingly large entry fee. Citizens can choose to represent themselves when filing or defending a lawsuit, but most citizens don’t have the knowledge or training to effectively represent their own interests in a court of law. On the other hand, the costs of hiring an attorney are prohibitively high for a lot of people.

In order to help people overcome this hurdle, certain lending institutions have arisen that lend plaintiffs the money they need to file a lawsuit, but the plaintiff only needs to repay the loan if they win their case.

The state of Colorado recently filed a lawsuit against one such lawsuit lender, Oasis Legal Finance, for allegedly extending credit in the state without a license under the state’s Uniform Consumer Credit Code (UCCC). Oasis countered that it was not extending credit, it was purchasing an investment. Continue reading ›

|

An injunction against speech harms not just the speakers but also the listeners (in this case the viewers and readers). “[T]he First Amendment goes beyond protection of the press and the self-expression of individuals to prohibit government from limiting the stock of information from which members of the pub-lic may draw.” First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, 435 U.S. 765, 783 (1978); see also Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367, 390 (1969); Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557, 564 (1969) (“the Constitution protects the right to receive information and ideas”). The injunction in this case is so broad and vague that it threatens to silence Fuller and Hartman completely.

The issue of whether an injunction can ever issue to forbid even defamatory speech from being published, even after a court has determined such speech to be defamatory, has never been decided by the Supreme Court.  Without deciding this issue, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals discussed it in detail in a recent opinion, McCarthy v Fuller.  You can view the opinion here. Continue reading ›

|

Despite the schoolyard saying, words can hurt you. Negative information that gets spread through the public can affect both your personal and professional lives, which is why legislators have taken steps to protect citizens from language that has the potential to be harmful.

But the U.S. Constitution promises all its citizens the right to free speech. This is because the founders of our country wanted the people to feel safe to criticize public figures, including politicians. The idea is that, if people feel free to criticize public figures, it allows public discussion of those figures. The law asserts the people’s right to free and open discussion of the people they are voting to govern them because uninhibited discussion allows the people to make the most informed decisions when they go to the voting polls. Continue reading ›

|

The federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) defines overtime as any time spent working after eight hours a day or forty hours a week. For most people, that means working eight hours a day, five days a week, but employees in some industries have odd shifts and their employers need to take this into account when calculating overtime.

In industries that need to be open during weekends, such as retail and healthcare, employees often take turns working weekends, leaving them with odd weeks. It is the employers’ responsibility to accurately calculate how much time employees spend working in a given week and compensate them accordingly.

According to a recent wage and hour class action lawsuit against CVS Pharmacy, the employer allegedly failed to properly define its workweek. The lawsuit alleges this resulted in employees getting paid straight time for their sixth consecutive day of work, when they should have been paid the premium overtime compensation of one and one half times their normal hourly rate for the whole day. Continue reading ›

|

Pacific Sunwear of California Inc., better known as PacSun, is the most recent retailer to face a class action lawsuit alleging the employer used on-call shifts to avoid paying employees for shifts.

On-call shifts are when an employee is required to keep their schedule free in case their employer needs them to come in to work. They have to call the day of the shift to see if they have to come in to work. If they don’t have to go in to work, they don’t get paid, but chances are they’ve already lost out on other opportunities they could have taken advantage of during that time, like attending class or working another job. Continue reading ›

|

Anyone who has shopped at Costco has seen people spread throughout the store, particularly in the food aisles, giving out samples and demonstrating how appliances work. Although they are a very familiar sight in the giant discount retailer, Costco Wholesale Corp. does not employee these people. Instead, they are supplied by Club Demonstration Services Inc. and Warehouse Demo Services Inc. (the two companies recently merged under the name Club Demonstration Services Inc.).

Selene P. and Cindy C. filed a class action wage and hour lawsuit against their employers for allegedly violating California wage and hour laws. Continue reading ›

|

In the modern Digital Age, delayed gratification has become a thing of the past. Companies not only compete to provide us with the things we want, they compete to get them to us faster. Amazon Prime Now is a service the online retailer offers in which certain items are available for delivery within an hour or two after the customer places the order, but such immediacy comes with a cost.

Amazon partnered with Scoobeez, a courier company, to find drivers to deliver Amazon Prime Now goods. The delivery drivers were classified as independent contractors, but a recent wage and hour class action lawsuit alleges they did not meet the qualifications for that classification. Continue reading ›

|

These days, the average person shares a lot of personal information with a variety of different institutions, but none is more sensitive than the companies that provide us with healthcare. Not only do those companies have access to our financial information (such as credit and debit card numbers), they also commonly have our social security numbers, which cannot be frozen or changed. This is in addition to having our email addresses, home mailing addresses, and various other sensitive information.

Given the level of trust we place in these companies, it’s reasonable to assume they’re doing everything in their power to protect our personal information, but a recent lawsuit against UCLA Health alleges the healthcare provider failed to take basic precautions, such as encrypting customers’ data. Continue reading ›

|

As our world becomes increasingly digital, thefts are becoming less of the physical breaking-and-entering kind and instead deal with more theft of information. People steal credit card numbers, names, email addresses, home addresses, and all sorts of financial information. This puts those exposed in danger of identity theft, which can create enormous financial hassles by interfering with their taxes and credit ratings.

As digital theft has evolved, security has had to evolve with it. There are always ways of protecting yourself and others, and those who fail to take the necessary measures against hackers can be held accountable in the event that sensitive information is stolen. Continue reading ›

Contact Information
Chicago Office
19 S LaSalle St #702
Chicago, IL 60603
Phone: 630-333-0333
Mailing Address
17W220 22nd St #410
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Phone: 630-333-0333 Please direct all mail correspondence to our Oakbrook Terrace address office.
Highland Park Office
189 Whistler Rd
Highland Park, IL 60035
Phone: 630-710-4990
We accept the following credit cards
Credit Cards Accepted
We accept payment via Venmo at: @L-A-LAW
Phone: 603-333-0333
Visit our site: chicagobusinesslawfirm.com

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2025, DiTommaso Lubin, PC
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design