The General Mills Corporation apologized and quickly retreated from a policy change which inserted a forced arbitration clause into its terms of service. The company, which makes popular cereal brands such as Cheerios and Cocoa Puffs, created a social media firestorm when it quietly added language to its website to […]
Category: General
Wrongful Incarceration Suit Yields $36 Million Verdict
Two men who were convicted and wrongfully incarcerated for the 1984 rape and murder of a teenage girl have prevailed in a civil rights lawsuit in federal court in the Eastern District of New York. The two men, John Restivo and Dennis Halstead, were freed in 2003 when DNA from […]
General Mills Arbitration Stance Causes Social Media Uproar
General Mills, Inc., the company that makes popular cereals Cheerios and Cocoa Puffs and also numerous other brands created a firestorm on social media after it began telling customers who joined its online communities that they have given up their right to sue the company by doing so. The company […]
NYT Article Highlights Lender Abuses with Reverse Mortgages
A recent New York Times article titled “Pitfalls of Reverse Mortgages May Pass to Borrower’s Heirs” highlights difficulties some homeowners’ heirs are experiencing because lenders are not adhering to applicable regulations on reverse mortgages. Although the reverse mortgage market has been in decline since the financial crisis, the rate of […]
Duke Health Settles NC Whistleblower Case
Duke University Health System, Inc. has agreed to pay $1 million to resolve allegations under the United States and North Carolina False Claims Acts that it made false claims in conjunction with medical care provided to beneficiaries of federal healthcare programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE). The whistleblower lawsuit was filed […]
Bank of America Ordered to Pay $727 Million in Consumer Relief for Illegal Credit Card Practices
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has ordered Bank of America, NA and FIA Card Services, NA to provide an estimated $727 million in relief to consumers harmed by practices related to credit card add-on products. Approximately 1.4 million consumers were impacted by Bank of America’s deceptive marketing of add-on […]
Halifax Health Agrees to Settlement of Whistleblower Case
On March 3, 2014, Halifax Hospital agreed to pay $85 million to settle part of a whistleblower case. The settlement was announced just before the case was set to proceed to trial in federal court in Orlando, Florida. Read article. The lawsuit was first filed in 2009 by Halifax Health […]
CFPB Requests Credit Card Companies Make Credit Scores Available to Consumers
On February 27, 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) called on the nation’s top credit card companies to make credit scores and related content freely available to their customers. A CFPB report found accuracy issues are the most common credit reporting complaint received from consumers. The CFPB also warned […]
$6.4 Million Settlement Reached in Wrongful Incarceration Case
The City of New York has agreed to pay $6.4 million to a man who spent 23 years in prison for a murder he did not commit. David Ranta was convicted of the 1990 killing in Brooklyn of a Hasidic rabbi who had stepped into his car at dawn just […]
New Jersey Man Exonerated after Spending 19 Years in Jail
In December 2013, the Somerset County prosecutor filed a motion dismissing the indictment against Gerard Richardson, an individual who had spent 19 years in jail for a murder he did not commit. The dismissal of the indictment followed a ruling by a New Jersey Superior Court judge overturning Richardson’s conviction […]