Lieff Cabraser Civil Justice Blog

Lieff Cabraser & Co-Counsel File Federal Class Action Lawsuit Against Commonwealth Edison for Bribery and Vastly Inflated Electricity Rates

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Class Action Lawsuit Against Commonwealth Edison for Bribery and Vastly Inflated Electricity Rates

Suit alleges corrupt scheme under which Commonwealth Edison funneled payments to the Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives over many years to ensure passage of bills permitting ComEd to charge dramatically higher electric rates in Illinois dating back to 2011

The law firms Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, Bellows Law Group, and Mason Lietz & Klinger have filed a federal bribery and corruption class action lawsuit in the Northern District of Illinois on behalf of Commonwealth Edison’s customers and ratepayers alleging that over many years, ComEd paid bribes to Michael J. Madigan, the powerful Speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, so that Madigan would ensure passage through the Illinois legislature of bills permitting ComEd to charge higher electric rates. The multi-year illegal scheme benefitted ComEd, defendant Exelon Corporation, and Madigan; the losers were public trust in government, the people of Illinois, and ComEd’s customers. [Read more…]

Help Lieff Cabraser’s R-23s Support the Family Violence Appellate Project as we Defend Our 2019 Title of “Best Lawyer Band in the Bay Area!”

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Lieff Cabraser's Rockin' Band The R-23s

Our first fund-raising challenge ends Thursday, August 6th at noon – we have two days to raise as much money as possible on our voting page to win more screen time in the show with an extra song!

Lieff Cabraser’s in-house rock band, The R-23s, return on October 22 to defend their title of “Best Lawyer Band in the Bay” at the 2020 Family Violence Appellate Project’s (FVAP) virtual Banding Together to End Domestic Violence show. This will be FVAP’s 8th annual attorney battle-of-the-bands fundraiser and fierce competition, featuring bands from California’s most philanthropic law firms and corporate legal teams. [Read more…]

Six Lieff Cabraser Partners Named to Benchmark Litigation’s 2020 “40 & Under Hot List”

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Six Lieff Cabraser Partners Named to Benchmark Litigation’s 2020 “40 & Under Hot List”

Benchmark Litigation, “the definitive guide to litigation firms and attorneys in the United States,” has announced this year’s Benchmark 40 & Under Hot List. The list highlights lawyers who are standouts among the top young talent in their respective litigation communities in the United States and Canada. Six Lieff Cabraser partners, Katherine L. Benson, Nimish R. Desai, Sarah R. London, Phong-Chau G. Nguyen, and Anne B. Shaver from the firm’s San Francisco office, and Annika K. Martin from the firm’s New York office, have been selected for honors within this year’s list. [Read more…]

New York Extends Child Victims Act ‘Look-Back’ Window for Reporting Sexual Abuse for One Full Year

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California Expands Window for Filing Child Sexual Abuse Cases

Extension applies to all NY sexual abuse cases including the more than 200 child sexual abuse lawsuits filed against Rockefeller University Hospital and Dr. Reginald Archibald

As reported by Law.com (subscription), on Monday, August 3, 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an extension of the historic Child Victims Act that gives survivors of childhood sexual abuse an additional year to bring lawsuits for sexual abuses that occurred even decades ago. This extension to August 14, 2021 gives survivors another 12 months to file civil suits against their alleged abusers and the institutions that protected them — regardless of the date of the original abuse. [Read more…]

Kelly Dermody Elected Chair-Elect of the ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law

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Kelly Dermody Elected Chair-Elect of the ABA Section of Labor & Employment Law

On August 1, 2020, Lieff Cabraser partner Kelly M. Dermody was elected Chair-Elect of the American Bar Association Section of Labor & Employment Law at the ABA annual meeting. The Section’s more than 20,000 members across the U.S. represent all perspectives of labor and employment law: management, union, plaintiff, neutral and public. At next year’s ABA annual meeting, Kelly will ascend automatically to Chair of the Section. She is the first openly LGBTQ person to serve as Chair-Elect in the Section’s 74-year history, and next year will be the first openly LGBTQ Chair. [Read more…]

Lieff Cabraser and Equal Justice Society File Class Action Challenging Trump Administration’s Theft of Congressionally-Allocated Pandemic Relief Funds from Incarcerated Persons and the Families They Support

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Justice

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (August 1, 2020)—Today, Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP and Equal Justice Society (collectively, “Plaintiffs’ co-counsel”) filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in San Francisco, California, challenging the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Treasury (collectively “Treasury”)’s decision to withhold CARES Act economic assistance payments from incarcerated people nationwide.  The lead plaintiffs are Colin Scholl, currently incarcerated in Salinas Valley State Prison in Monterey, California, and Lisa Strawn, a woman paroled from San Quentin on July 14, 2020.  Plaintiffs and the proposed class seek a determination that Defendants’ conduct is illegal and an Order that they make the required payments immediately. [Read more…]

Belviq (Lorcaserin) Appetite Suppressant – Patients Report Dangerous and Disturbing Drug Injuries

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Belviq (Lorcaserin) Appetite Suppressant – Patients Report Dangerous and Disturbing Drug Injuries

Patients across the U.S. have been reporting hidden and dangerous side effects in the 2012-era Japanese appetite suppressant Belviq (Lorcaserin). As obesity remains a public health crisis in the U.S., many Americans struggle daily in an effort to lose weight. From 2012 onward, Belviq was introduced in the United States promising meaningful weight loss, and many people began taking the drug. However, had patients known the true and hidden danger of Belviq, they would likely have reconsidered their decisions and avoided Belviq. [Read more…]

If You Owned or Leased a GM Vehicle Subject to 2014 Recalls, You May Have Rights and Choices in Proposed Settlement

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generic gm

A proposed class settlement of economic loss claims by persons who owned or leased certain GM vehicles that were recalled in 2014 has been submitted for approval to the federal district court. The recalls involved the ignition system, key rotation, electronic power steering and/or side airbag wiring. Plaintiffs claim that consumers overpaid when they bought or leased these vehicles. General Motors LLC (“New GM”), the Motors Liquidation Company GUC Trust (“the GUC Trust”), and the Motors Liquidation Company Avoidance Action Trust (“the AAT”) deny these allegations. Plaintiffs, the GUC Trust, New GM and the AAT have agreed to a settlement to avoid the risk and cost of further litigation. [Read more…]

Google Gender Discrimination Plaintiffs Seek to Certify Class of 11,000 Former Female Employees

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Thousands of Female Microsoft Employees Appeal Judge’s Decision to Deny Class Certification in Microsoft Gender Discrimination Lawsuit

As reported by Law360 (subscription), on July 22, 2020 in California superior court, Lieff Cabraser and co-counsel Altshuler Berzon moved to certify a class of nearly 11,000 former female Google workers who allege the tech giant engaged in systemic and pervasive pay and promotion discrimination against its female employees in California, at times paying women thousands of dollars less than their male counterparts. [Read more…]

Daily Journal Recognizes Kelly Dermody & Anne Shaver as Top Labor & Employment Lawyers for 2020

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Daily Journal Recognizes Kelly Dermody & Anne Shaver as Top Labor & Employment Lawyers for 2020

We are pleased to announce that the Daily Journal (subscription) has named Lieff Cabraser partners Kelly M. Dermody and Anne B. Shaver as Top Labor & Employment Lawyers for 2020. This is Anne’s third time receiving the award, while Kelly joins the list for the eighth time since 2011. [Read more…]

Voting Rights Advocates Challenge Unsafe and Unequal Elections in Texas during a Pandemic 

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Voting Rights

Complaint Filed on behalf of Mi Familia Vota, the Texas NAACP, and individual Texas voters seeks to ensure that Texas in-person voters will be able to cast their votes safely.

SAN ANTONIO, TX (July 15, 2020) – Today, Mi Familia Vota, the Texas NAACP, and individual Texas voters filed a lawsuit in federal court in Texas challenging Texas’s in-person election practices, which are unsafe, high risk, and unequal during the COVID-19 pandemic. Free Speech For People, the law firm of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, and the law firm of Lyons & Lyons represent the plaintiffs in this case. [Read more…]

Mark Chalos & Kenny Byrd Re-Elected to Leadership Roles in the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association for 2020-2021

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Mark Chalos & Kenny Byrd Re-Elected to Leadership Roles in the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association for 2020-2021

We are pleased to announce that Lieff Cabraser partners Mark P. Chalos and Kenneth S. Byrd have been re-elected to continue in leadership roles in the Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association (TTLA) for the 2020-2021 year. Mark will repeat his position as TTLA Vice President, after earlier serving as Treasurer and Secretary, and Kenny was re-elected to the TTLA Board of Governors. [Read more…]

Bridge Magazine: “University of Michigan is poorly serving sexual abuse survivors”

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University of Michigan

Bridge Magazine has published a powerful opinion piece, written by California Western School of Law Professor Nancy Chi Cantalupo, examining the private claims resolution program the University of Michigan has established for survivors of the late Dr. Robert E. Anderson, a former UM physician accused of sexually assaulting hundreds of former students. [Read more…]

Supreme Court Upholds Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s Robocall Ban

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robocalls tcpa

Abusive and harassing robocalls and texts remain against the law, and consumers continue to have remedies available when they receive such unwanted communications

As reported by Law360, on July 6, 2020, The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision upholding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s sweeping ban on unsolicited and harassing autodialed and prerecorded telemarketing calls and text messages made to consumers without their consent. [Read more…]

Plaintiffs Seek Release of DirecTV Customer Contact Info Sealed in Earlier Improper Texting Lawsuit

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texting

Thousands of known DirecTV customers who received illegal texts will lose their right to arbitrate their privacy claims

Lieff Cabraser and Co-Counsel have requested the district court for permission to contact nearly 9,100 known DIRECTV customers who were plaintiffs’ in a 2015 Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) class action lawsuit against the satellite TV giant to notify them that in the wake of the class action suit, they may now bring individual privacy violation claims against DIRECTV under the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act (STELA). [Read more…]

2015, 2017, 2018 Northern California Fire Victims Trust Now Fully Funded – July 1st, 2020

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Northern California Wine Country Fires

The PG&E Fire Victim Trust announced today that it has been funded effective today. The Trust received the Fire Victim Trust settlement proceeds from PG&E which includes 476,995,175 shares of PG&E Common Stock and the first installment of cash funding of $5.385 billion ($5.4 billion reduced by previous court-ordered advances of $15 million) in accordance with PG&E’s Plan of Reorganization. [Read more…]

Lieff Cabraser and Co-Counsel File Nationwide Class Action Breach of Contract Lawsuit on Behalf of Six Prominent Nashville Restaurants Against Erie Insurance Exchange Over Refusal to Pay Business Insurance Claims

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Nashville

July 1, 2020, Nashville, Tennessee—Lieff Cabraser, The Higgins Firm, and the Law Office of Alexandra Foote have filed a federal nationwide class action lawsuit against Erie Insurance Exchange on behalf of six Nashville-area restaurants and bars accusing the insurance carrier of breach of contract in its failure to pay valid business interruption insurance claims. This is the first such federal class action filed in Nashville. [Read more…]

Brendan Glackin and Dean Harvey Named “Top 2020 Antitrust Lawyers in California”

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Brendan Glackin and Dean Harvey Named “Top 2020 Antitrust Lawyers in California”

The Daily Journal (subscription) has named its Top Antitrust Lawyers in California, a list that includes Lieff Cabraser partners Brendan P. Glackin and Dean M. Harvey. Brendan and Dean are featured in the Daily Journal’s “2020 Top Antitrust Lawyers in California” special edition, which discusses their past successes and ongoing case work in individual profiles. [Read more…]