California OKs class-action suits for unpaid overtime
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Arbitration policies can't stop litigation The California Supreme Court ruled this week that employees who claim they've been cheated out of overtime can sue their employer, whether or not the company's arbitration policy forbids class actions.â¦
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A class-action lawsuit was filed yesterday in King County Superior Court on behalf of people who have used the anti-arthritis drug Vioxx.
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A federal judge gave undocumented Wal-Mart Stores contract workers the right to seek out colleagues and form a group to collectively sue the company for unpaid overtime and minimum wage violations.
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Washington State's highest court has given the green light for a class-action lawsuit.
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California dropped its criminal investigation of Diebold Election Systems Inc. on Tuesday, instead joining Alameda County and two electronic-voting activists in suing the Texas-based touch-screen voting machine maker.
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The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that individual participants in the most common type of retirement plan can sue under a pension protection law to recover their losses.
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California Gov. Arnold  Schwarzenegger's new guidelines on workplace injuries go into  effect within days, but critics threatened lawsuits on Monday  to prevent them from become permanent.
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(InfoWorld) - Washington State's highest court on Thursday let a class-action lawsuit alleging overcharging by Cingular Wireless go forward. The state Supreme Court said a clause in Cingular's contract that prevented subscribers from starting class-action suits was unfair and sent the case back to the trial court in King County where it began. The suit was filed in 2004 on behalf of a small number of Washington customers of Cingular Wireless, now part of AT&T Inc. It said the carrier advertised free roaming in areas covered by AT&T Wireless, which was then a separate company, but hit the customers with roaming charges anyway. It also said customers were improperly charged for long distance on some calls, said Douglas Dunham, an attorney representing the plaintiffs. They alleged Cingular had overcharged customers between $1 and $40 per month. The plaintiffs' attempt to start a class-action suit was blocked by a clause in the Cingular customer contract, which said disgruntled subscribers couldn't form or join classes to sue the carrier. As a result, they didn't even get to the stage of finding out how many customers in Washington or nationally may have been affected, Dunham said. Now that they have won on appeal, the plaintiffs will pursue a class action, he said. AT&T is studying the ruling, spokesman Walt Sharp said. The carrier could appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to F. Paul Bland, staff attorney at Public Justice, a public-interest law firm in Washington, D.C., that helped argue the plaintiffs' case. In cases involving small amounts of money, consumers need to be able to pursue class actions, Bland said. "Cingular was trying to write a contract term that would make it impossible for their customers to vindicate their legal rights ... if Cingular cheated them out of small sums of money," Bland said. "Even though Cingular broke its contract and engaged in a bait-and-switch that netted it millions of dollars, almost no individuals would ever be able to take their claims forward and get justice." The decision will make it harder for other companies, such as credit card issuers, to introduce similar bans on class-action suits in Washington, Dunham predicted. In the Cingular case, it will probably take several months to get the class of plaintiffs certified and to gauge damages, he said. The case might not go to trial for two years, he added.
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A class-action lawsuit that alleged Microsoft Corp. overcharged consumers was settled Wednesday for an undisclosed amount.
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A barrage of lawsuits has been filed against mutual funds, contending that they did not claim money due their investors from settlements of securities class-action lawsuits.
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A state class-action lawsuit filed yesterday draws a new industry into the debate over whether workers are independent contractors, who are not entitled to overtime pay and other benefits, or employees, who are: courier services.
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State appellate courts in Missouri and New Mexico on Tuesday upheld decisions to grant class-action status to lawsuits alleging Wal-Mart Stores Inc. deprived hourly workers of wages, requiring them to work "off the clock" before or after shifts.
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A federal appeals court here ruled on Thursday that federal regulators erred in rejecting up to $2.8 billion in refunds owed to California electric customers resulting
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SACRAMENTO A California commission has approved 82 (m) million dollars in tax refunds to nearly two dozen companies that didn&#39;t actually pay state income tax.
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OTTAWA (CP) - Ontario's highest court has given the go-ahead for the first class-action lawsuit by former students of a native residential school.
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The Supreme Court ruled Monday that home care workers are not entitled to overtime pay under federal law.
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The U.S. Senate approved a bill on  Thursday that was sought by business to curb class action  lawsuits and is part of President Bush's drive to overhaul the  civil justice system.