Class-Action Lawsuits

Law Firm Data Breaches Surge In 2023

Cybercriminals appear to be successfully hitting small and large firms alike.

Telltale Games Sued By Employees It Stabbed In The Back

Employees file class-action suit after sudden layoffs.

Students Suing Failed For-Profit Law School Reach Shockingly Low Settlement Due To Parent Company’s Financial Straits

This settlement is nowhere near the amount needed to make all class members whole, and it's sad.

Morning Docket: 05.08.17

* President Trump included a signing statement when approving the funding legislation that will keep the government running through the end of September. In it, he questioned the limits of his spending power and suggested he'd ignore advance notice requirements for Congress when taking foreign policy and military actions, amid other troubling stances on legal matters. [Bloomberg Politics] * In other news, sometime this week -- possibly even later today -- President Trump is expected to announce some of his picks for the more than 120 vacancies in the lower federal courts, all of whom are known for their "scholarly credentials and 'intellectual boldness.'" As luck would have it, we already scooped predicted the names of many of the nominees. [New York Times] * #NoFilter necessary for this case: The End, a Brooklyn coffee shop, has filed suit against Starbucks, claiming the coffee giant copied its Unicorn Latte with its highly Instagrammable Unicorn Frappuccino. The End registered the name of its whimsical drink with the Patent and Trademark Office in January, and seeks all profits Starbucks made from its sale of its mythical sugar bomb. [Newsweek] * Even if you're a passenger in a car, you'll have no reprieve from police searches in this state. The Utah Supreme Court has ruled that police may ask for passengers' identification and run background checks on them -- without any suspicion of wrongdoing -- during traffic stops, and that doing so will not stand as a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights. [FOX 13 Salt Lake City] * Think you've found the perfect person to write you a law school rec letter? Think again. "Like in the world of dating, it helps if your partner/prospective partner is supportive of your plans." Here are some red flags to look out for that may indicate your reference isn't going to meet your deadlines, isn't going to remember who you are, and isn't going to write you a glowing letter. [U.S. News] * Celebrity trial attorney Mark Geragos has filed a $100 million class-action lawsuit against rapper Ja Rule and entrepreneur Billy McFarland, the organizers of the ill-fated Fyre Festival, an event marked by "incompetence on an almost inconceivable scale." In an interview with Variety, Geragos referred to the disastrous event as a "Petri dish of fraud, incompetence and hubris." [Variety]

Embattled Law School Blames ABA, Education Department, Students For Its Legal Problems

This is pretty bold.

Morning Docket: 03.31.17

* General Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser to President Trump, has offered to testify before Congress on the campaign's alleged Russian connections in exchange for immunity from prosecution. Remember back in September when Flynn said on Meet the Press that "when you are given immunity that means you've probably committed a crime"? This is absolutely wild. [Wall Street Journal; NBC News] * The chairman of Bethune-Cookman's criminal justice department defends the HBCU's affiliation with Arizona Summit Law, even though it's on probation, saying that because $12.5 million in scholarship money is at stake, "it would be irresponsible not to provide this opportunity as an option for B-CU students to obtain a legal education without incurring excessive student loan debt in the process." [DealBook / New York Times] * It looks like President Trump is planning to sign off on a repeal of Obama-era internet privacy rules that were promulgated by the FCC in October. As noted by Senator Chuck Schumer, this is "[t]errible for American [people], great for big [business]." Next on the agenda seems to be the decimation of net neutrality, so you might want to prepare yourselves to pay more for an internet connection that's quicker than a snail. [Reuters] * More than half of the 6,000 former students of Trump University have submitted claims to be part of its $25 million fraud class-action settlement. They'll recoup 80 cents for every dollar they spent on President Trump's real estate seminars. Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who Trump once accused of being biased due to his "Mexican heritage," will likely approve the settlement over the objections of two former students. [Big Law Business] * Guess which law school created a class based on Baltimore crime drama "The Wire"? It's U. Pitt., which has a three-credit course called "Crime, Law and Society in 'The Wire.'" This seems like it's one of those "Law and [Insert Noun Here]" classes, where 3Ls are hoping to get another A to add to their GPAs before they graduate. This would've been more relevant if a Maryland law school had offered the class. [Huffington Post]

Students File $5 Million Class-Action Lawsuit Against Charlotte Law

Students at this law school are very, very angry, and feel like they've been duped.

Morning Docket: 11.16.16

* Plaintiffs in the Trump University fraud class-action lawsuit are sick and tired of waiting for their claims to be heard. They want the trial to proceed as scheduled, the defendant's presidential duties be damned, writing, "The court has been more than generous in accommodating defendants’ multiple delay requests, but after 6 1/2 years of waiting, plaintiffs cannot afford any further delays." [Big Law Business] * Poor Merrick Garland: After more than 243 days of waiting for a hearing as President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, he'll return to his seat as the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit, the second highest court in the land, in January 2017. The man is a true gentleman, an "example of how to act with dignity and class and character." [CNN] * "If president-elect Donald Trump follows through on his campaign promises, people’s rights will be in jeopardy." Since Donald Trump's victory in the election, the American Civil Liberties Union has raised a record amount -- more than $8.2 million poured in from more than 100,000 donors in the span of less than a week. [WSJ Law Blog] * Much to LSAC's chagrin, the LSAT may not be the only admissions testing prerequisite in town for prospective law students anymore. Law schools seem particularly eager to allow would-be students to take the GRE, which is offered throughout the year, as opposed to the LSAT, which is only offered four times a year. [National Law Journal] * Michael Fine, the Ohio lawyer who was disbarred for hypnotizing his female clients and sexually assaulting them, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of kidnapping with sexual motivation and one count of attempted kidnapping. Fine must register as a sex offender. We'll have more on this later. [Reuters]

Morning Docket: 05.16.16

* As the Obama administration pushes for recognition of transgender rights, the transgender community may have found an unlikely ally: the late Justice Antonin Scalia. His opinion in the 1998 Oncale decision on sex discrimination was cited in the administration's letter to public school officials warning them that gender-identity discrimination was prohibited by civil rights laws. A former Scalia clerk has called it an “absurd misreading of Title IX.” [Los Angeles Times] * We're now in the home stretch of the Supreme Court's term, and with upcoming rulings on affirmative action, abortion, contraceptive coverage, immigration, and Puerto Rico's debt, it's going to get harder and harder for the justices to avoid 4-4 splits. In the majority of these cases, they'll have to stop agreeing to disagree so it doesn't look like we've got a Court in controversy with many deadlocks. [Bloomberg Politics] * The State Bar of California has been criticized over a lack of transparency as to its finances, and in particular, its "rampant spending" on executive salaries. In fact, those at the top of the food chain at the California Bar earn salaries which exceed that of the state's governor, who earns nearly $180,000 per year. That's a lot of cash to fail more than half of the state's bar-exam takers (more on that later today)! [WSJ Law Blog] * "She has single-handedly stuck a knife in the back of every Uber driver in the country. The entire class was thrown under the bus and backed over." Shannon Liss-Riordan, the lawyer who arranged a $100 million settlement deal in the Uber class-action over drivers' employment status, is being attacked by her own clients, and now other lawyers are trying to have her removed as lead attorney on the case. [Chicago Tribune] * "They give their young workers Ping-Pong tables and take away their constitutional rights." That's not a work perk companies are willing to brag about. More and more technology startups are embracing arbitration agreements to prevent their employees from filing lawsuits over workplace disputes that could have potentially ruinous financial effects on their bottom lines if they were litigated in court. [DealBook / New York Times]

Morning Docket: 04.26.16

* John LaTorre, the former chief financial officer of Barry Law School, recently pleaded guilty to second-degree grand theft after spending tens of thousands of dollars on school corporate card to finance his Hooters outings and pay his utilities bills. LaTorre faces up to 10 years of probation and will have to pay the school $24,838 in restitution in monthly payments of at least $175. [Orlando Sentinel] * Professor Sujit Choudhry may have resigned from his position as dean of Berkeley Law School after being accused in a sexual harassment scandal, but now he says the school is trying to strip him of his tenure, and he's not going to go down without a fight. In a grievance letter, Choudhry claims school officials smeared him in the press and violated his due process rights. We'll have more on this development later today. [WSJ Law Blog] * This "sets back every blind person who wants to be a lawyer out there": Three blind law students have filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against BARBRI, alleging that the bar exam test preparation company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by failing to properly accommodate them with usable study materials, thereby "preventing them from fully, equally, and adequately preparing for the bar exam." [Dallas Morning News] * Just when you thought this ugly legal dispute couldn't get any messier, one of Dennis Hastert's sexual assault accusers decided to sue the former Speaker of the House for breach of contract. Identified as James Doe in his pleadings, he alleges that Hastert agreed to pay him $3.5M in hush money for keeping quiet about the abuse he endured when he was a teen, but thus far, he's only seen $1.7M of those funds. [CBS Chicago] * It's late April, and if you're still looking for advice on your personal statement for your law school applications, then you're probably already in trouble. However, if you're desperate for a helpful hint even this late in the game and your law school of choice has a late submission deadline, you may want to try including a thesis -- it'll keep your essay from becoming a regurgitation of your résumé. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

Morning Docket: 03.04.16

* "I'd hope they'd see reason but I wouldn't bet the family farm on it." Senate Republicans may be stomping their feet about confirming one of President Obama's Supreme Court nominees, but it may behoove them to do it now before Hillary Clinton takes office with a Democrat-controlled Senate. [Common Sense / New York Times] * Sincere congratulations to Damaris Hernández, who recently achieved a seemingly impossible feat at her Bigfirm. The 36-year-old attorney is the first Latina to become a partner at Cravath Swaine & Moore. She joins the 46 other Hispanic women who are partners at just a few of America's largest law firms. [DealBook / New York Times] * Lawmakers from the Garden State have demanded that Gibson Dunn and digital forensics firm Stroz Friedberg repay $2.8 million in legal fees in the Bridgegate case, the bulk of which were e-discovery charges to the tune of $2.3 million. Welcome to the absurdity that is document review, New Jersey! [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] * It looks like Apple isn't the only tech company that's dueling with the DOJ right now. Since "[t]he interest in secrecy does not last forever," Twitter is mounting a First Amendment case against the Feds over its ability to publicly release data that allegedly contains details related to the government's terrorism investigations. [WSJ Law Blog] * The 10 customers who filed a class-action lawsuit against Subway over the sub shop's less-than foot-long footlong sandwiches will only be able to afford 100 $5 footlongs each, because the lawyers on the case are walking away with $520,000 out of $525,000 settlement dollars -- that's 99 percent of the settlement. Fair? [Dayton Daily News]

Thomas Jefferson School Of Law To Stand Trial For Allegedly Inflating Employment Statistics

Never before has a law school been forced to actually stand trial for allegedly inflating its employment statistics. This is historic.