In the News

From Reuters: 5/28/2019.

"The pension funds for public employees in California and Colorado have moved to intervene in New Jersey federal court litigation that marks the first court test of the legality of mandatory shareholder arbitration. The intervention motion, filed by Deepak Gupta of Gupta Wessler, Salvatore Graziano of Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann and Marc Gross of Pomerantz, sends a strong signal that the New Jersey case could have major implications for shareholder class actions."

From the The Hill: 5/28/2019.

"Arbitration clauses are buried in the fine print of everything from nursing home admissions forms and credit card contracts to online click-through “agreements.” Often consumers and small businesses unwittingly give up their right to go to court to hold wrongdoers accountable and recover their losses. Instead, victims are forced to seek redress before secret arbitration panels chosen and paid for by the very corporations that break the law."

From the New York Times: 5/3/2019.

"A 1950 Supreme Court decision makes it impossible for service members to recover damages from the government for negligence or misconduct they suffer while serving."

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From the Washington Post: 5/3/2019.

"Over the last three decades, more and more corporations have forced their employees or customers to sign these contracts, agreeing to take their disputes to private arbitration instead of to court. A recent study estimates that currently more than 60 million U.S. workers signed these mandatory arbitration agreements when they were hired. Another found that, last year, consumers signed almost three times as many consumer arbitration agreements as there are people living in the U.S."

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: 5/1/2019.

"Military personnel should have at the very least the same rights as everyone else to compensation for gross medical negligence. The House bill would provide welcome relief to those who have been permanently harmed by bad medical practices. We hope it is passed quickly."

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From Stars and Stripes: 4/30/2019.

"But it doesn’t stop there: Patients and their families aren’t allowed to sue for medical malpractice. A special legal shield, known as the Feres Doctrine, blocks military servicemembers and their relatives from seeking recourse in court."

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From the Washington Post: 4/30/2019.

"These activists are hoping they can get enough workers on board -- in the tech sector and beyond -- to bring the debate over forced arbitration that's been brewing for years in Silicon Valley to Washington. The phone bank event is an early sign that tech workers, not usually considered organized labor, are banding together to become a more traditional political force -- and even adopting old-school ways of getting their message across."

From CBS News: 4/17/2019.

"Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pushing to regulate trampoline parks amid mounting concern over their risks. A California police officer filed a lawsuit last week after he was temporarily paralyzed at a trampoline park outside San Francisco in 2013."

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From USA TODAY: 4/4/2019.

"A two-year investigation by USA TODAY, The Arizona Republic  and the Center for Public Integrity reveals for the first time the extent to which special interests have infiltrated state legislatures using model legislation."

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From the Washington Post: 3/4/2019.

"If the bill passes, it would be a step in the right direction. In the best of all possible worlds, the government would also help protect customers from misbehaving companies. At the very least, though, it shouldn’t be protecting misbehaving companies from their customers."