If you’ve ever watched daytime — or really late night — TV, you’re probably quite familiar with Roni “Tax Lady” Deutch, the tax attorney being sued for $34 million by the California attorney general over allegations she defrauded thousands of customers. Well, our TV speakers have gotten a brief reprieve as Deutch announced last week that she has closed her firm and surrendered her law license to the California State Bar. [More]
lawsuits
Chuck E. Cheese's Accused Of Turning Kids Into Gamblers
By 5.16.11
According to a potential class action suit filed by a San Diego mom, kiddie-themed pizza chain Chuck E. Cheese’s is a gambling parlor disguised as a venue for innocent entertainment. [More]
LimeWire To Pay $105 Million To Record Labels
By 5.13.11
Last October, a federal court shut down peer-to-peer file-sharing service LimeWire. Yesterday, the defunct company agreed to fork over $105 million to to settle a copyright infringement suit brought by 13 record labels. [More]
Civil Rights Group Sues Maryland's Education Commission For Discrimination
By 5.12.11
Maryland’s Higher Education Commission faces a lawsuit brought by a civil rights advocacy group that alleges the state’s treatment of its traditionally black institutions promote segregation and unfair education opportunities. [More]
Federal Judge Rules That Political Activists Can Use Company Logos
By 5.11.11
Political activists who use company trademarks to protest business practices often face lawsuits from offended organizations, but a ruling by a federal judge in Utah may stifle such suits because they violate First Amendment rights. [More]
College Kid Is Pro At Taking Companies To Small Claims Court
By 5.10.11
Most of us have trouble scratching a simple customer service call off our to-do list, but The Red Tape Chronicles profiles a college kid who has turned taking companies to small claims court into a bit of a hobby. And he’s won 10 out of 12 times. [More]
Telemarketer Won't Show "Do Not Call" Policy? You Can Sue For $500
By 5.6.11
If you can’t get rid of annoying telemarketers, you can at least make a profit off them. Under Federal law, they have to give you a written copy of their “Do Not Call” policy for free if you ask them to. If they don’t, you can take them to court and sue them for a cool statutory $500. Here’s a sample script for doing this from a guy who has sued several telemarketers over this violation and won. [More]
Woman Sues Strip Club For Discrimination For Charging Female Customers Double
By 5.4.11
In February, a woman says she took her husband to a strip club in Maryland to celebrate. But when they got to the door, they were told that she would have to pay double her husband’s $10 cover charge. Now that woman has slapped the bar with a $200,000 discrimination suit. [More]
Your Rented Computer Could Be Spying On You
By 5.3.11
According to a recently filed lawsuit, a big rental chain installs physical hardware and software into its rented computers, capturing the keystrokes, screenshots, and even webcam images of unsuspecting customers. The only way to disable it is by waving an electronic “wand” over the device. The spyware was revealed when a store manager for the chain showed up at renter’s house to try to repossess the laptop and showed the renter a picture of him taken by the webcam, unbeknownst to him, by the leased laptop. [More]
Big Sugar Sues Big Corn Over "Corn Sugar" Ad Campaign For HFCS
By 4.28.11
Last year, the Corn Refiners Association began a campaign to rebrand controversial sweetener high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as “corn sugar.” Well that has managed to rankle the folks behind non-corn sugar, who say it is false advertising and have now taken their complaint to a U.S. District Court. [More]
AT&T: Mandatory Binding Arbitration Actually Benefits The Consumer
By 4.27.11
Earlier today, the Supreme Court ruled that it’s okay for companies to effectively preempt class-action lawsuits by putting mandatory binding arbitration clauses into their contracts with consumers. To most of us, that looks like a slap in the face to the American consumer, but the folks at AT&T want us all to know that the Supreme Court decision is actually going to benefit us all. [More]
Lawsuit: Benjamin Moore's Odorless Paint Actually Quite Stinky
By 4.27.11
Benjamin Moore’s Natura paint is billed as an eco-friendly, odorless paint with no volatile organic compounds that doesn’t stink up your house while it dries. Some consumers love it, and some don’t. Bu some consumers really don’t like it, and one woman has initiated a class-action suit claiming that Natura wouldn’t dry and stunk up her house so badly that she couldn’t stay in her home. [More]
California AG Asks Judge To Throw Tax Lady Roni Deutch In Jail
By 4.26.11
Last summer, the California Attorney General filed a $34 million lawsuit against daytime TV mainstay “Tax Lady” Roni Deutch, alleging that her firm defrauded customers out of millions each year. Now, the AG’s office has asked that Deutch be thrown in jail for allegedly destroying important documents and for not refunding money to customers. [More]
Wegmans Settles Walgreens Lawsuit Over Not-At-All-Similar "W"
By 4.22.11
Regular readers may remember that Walgreens filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Wegmans last fall over the fact that the two companies’ “W”s could maybe, possibly, if you squint, look similar. Well, Wegmans has decided it’s cheaper to change some logos than fight a lawsuit, because it has agreed to change the offending W on its store-brand products. [More]
BP Spreads The Worst Company Love Around, Sues Deepwater Horizon Partners For Billions
By 4.22.11
As many readers mentioned in the comments leading up to BP’s hairline thin victory over Bank of America in this year’s Worst Company in America tournament, the oil company wasn’t the only one involved in the disaster on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Now, a year on from that horrible incident, BP has filed suits against Halliburton, Transocean and Cameron International. [More]
Via Full-Page Ad, Taco Bell Asks "Meat Filling" Lawyers For Apology
By 4.22.11
Taking a victory lap around the tactical retreat by the lawyers who had sued it for its beef not being beefy enough, Taco Bell took out a full-page ad asking the firm to say “sorry.” [More]
Woman Sues Target Over Credit Card Debt Collection Practices
By 4.21.11
A woman in Pennsylvania has filed a lawsuit against the retail chain, alleging that it used false affidavits to collect debts on Target-issued credit card accounts. [More]
Customer Catches Best Buy Breaking Law, Gets Banned From Store
By 4.21.11
Some companies sure are sore losers. Take for example the folks at Best Buy, who were not only caught violating consumer protection laws, but who then banned the customer who called them out in court for doing so. [More]
