For Consumers

A Renewed Attempt To End Anticompetitive Pay-For-Delay Settlement Agreements

By WBE | 3.5.2012 | For Consumers, In The News, You Should Know
President Obama invoked the ire of the pharmaceutical industry a few weeks ago by including in his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2013 a renewed proposal “to increase the availability of ...
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Second Circuit Reaffirms Refusal to Enforce Class Action Waiver

By WBE | 2.13.2012 | For Businesses, For Consumers, You Should Know
Earlier this month, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reaffirmed its prior holding that a class action waiver was unenforceable where it effectively precluded plaintiffs from vindicating their ...
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Warning: Spirit Airlines Wants to Continue Deceiving You

By WBE | 2.6.2012 | For Consumers, You Should Know
On January 24, 2012 a new U.S. Department of Transportation rule took effect requiring airline carriers to include all mandatory taxes and fees in their fares upfront.  Under this new ...
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Disappearing Cases

By WBE | 2.2.2012 | Columns, For Consumers, Guest Post, You Should Know
The following is a guest post by F. Paul Bland, Jr., a Senior Attorney for Public Justice. This probably won't shock you: five members of the U.S. Supreme Court really like mandatory ...
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The Litigation Privilege: Offering Protection for 25 Years’ Worth of Lies?

By WBE | 1.9.2012 | For Consumers, In The News, You Should Know
In Williams v. BASF Catalyst, LLC, Case No. 2:11-cv-01754-SRC-MAS (D.N.J.) BASF Catalyst LLC (“BASF”) and its corporate law firm, Cahill Gordon Reindell, LLP (“CGR”) recently asked a New Jersey ...
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Republicans Block Another Obama Nominee, Consumers Suffer Another Blow

By WBE | 12.16.2011 | Columns, For Consumers, In The News, Ken Wexler, You Should Know
On Thursday, Dec. 8, in a 53 to 45 vote, Senate Republicans blocked the nomination of Richard Cordray as the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Despite Cordray’s backing by 37 ...
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Stopping The Next Bubble: The Time To Reform Student Loan Debt Is Now

By WBE | 11.4.2011 | For Consumers, In The News, You Should Know
Student loans have been on the forefront of the news recently.  Protestors involved in the nationwide “Occupy Wall Street” movement (many of whom are unemployed recent college graduates) have ...
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Aqua Dots Revisited

By WBE | 11.2.2011 | For Consumers, Hall Of Shame, In The News, Public Victories, You Should Know
A few months ago, I wrote a short blog post to discuss my disagreement with a Northern District of Illinois decision that denied class certification in a case involving the sale of defective toy ...
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Do As I Say, Not As I Sue: Exposing the Lawsuit-Happy Hypocrites of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform

By WBE | 10.28.2011 | For Consumers, In The News, You Should Know
Would you be surprised to learn that there is a powerful force working every day to limit your access to the legal system?  It is the same force working to convince the American people that all ...
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Revisiting Swipe Fees

By WBE | 10.21.2011 | For Consumers, In The News, You Should Know
A few months ago, I wrote a blog piece analyzing the Durbin Amendment to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law which authorized the Federal Reserve to impose a cap on debit card swipe fees. The ...
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Bifurcated Discovery in Class Actions: Two Reasons Why it Doesn’t Work

By WBE | 10.19.2011 | For Businesses, For Consumers, For Investors, You Should Know
A common weapon in class action defendants’ arsenals is the motion to “bifurcate” discovery, splitting the process into two phases: first, discovery as it relates to the elements of Federal Rule ...
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The Supreme Court Gets One Right: Members of a Class that Was Not Certified Are Not Bound by Collateral Estoppel in Smith v. Bayer; Thorogood v. Sears Remanded for Further Consideration

By WBE | 10.14.2011 | For Consumers, You Should Know
With all the commentary surrounding the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dukes v. Walmart, two important decisions affecting class action litigants may have fallen under the radar this ...
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