#class action lawsuit

[geezerwench]

Hey Twitter employees getting laid off tomorrow! IMPORTANT INFO from a CA employment attorney (me):

CA's "WARN" law requires Twitter to give you 60 days notice of a massive layoff.

A layoff of 50+ employees within a 30 day period qualifies.

I know you didn't get that notice.

This WARN law applies to all California employers of 75+ employees, which obviously includes Twitter with its thousands of employees.

Purpose of the law is to give laid off employees time to figure out how to handle this disruption.

And Elon completely ignores it.

Employers like Twitter who violate the WARN Act face civil penalties of $500/day for each violation. With thousands of employees, this could be significant, though maybe not to Elon.

Employees laid off in violation of the WARN Act receive back pay at the employee's final rate or 3 year average of compensation, whichever is higher. Twitter would also be liable for workers' medical expenses that would have been covered under an employee benefit plan.

Twitter will be liable for all of these (civil penalties, lost compensation, lost medical and other benefits) & attorneys' fees for the 60 days it failed to give workers notice.

This flagrant violation of workers rights is outrageous.

Who's in for a class action? LET'S DO THIS

Also, CA's strong antidiscrimination laws apply to Twitter's big layoff tomorrow. Are people of color, women and/or older workers disproportionately chosen, for example?

This was done so hastily, so slapdash, so that the world's richest man can get even richer faster.

We'll see how long Twitter lets my posts stay up. If they take them down tonight, before the layoffs, that means they were on notice of the law I cite and chose to punish me rather than follow it.

That's consciousness of guilt and I'd use it as the basis for punitive damages.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

After 38 Quaker-branded granola and cereal products were recalled over salmonella exposure, a class-action lawsuit has been filed in Canada. On Friday, Vancouver-based Slater Vecchio LLP announced that it had filed the lawsuit in BC against The Quaker Oats Company and PepsiCo Canada ULC on behalf of anyone in Canada who purchased or claimed to have fallen ill from consuming the recalled Quaker products. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) issued the recall just a week before, on January 11.

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[pancakeke]

If you are in the US and subscribed to Crunchyroll + watched their content at any point between September 8, 2020 and September 20, 2023, check your email for a message from sonysettlement@e.emailksa.com

That domain seemed fishy and went to spam for me, but I looked into the details in the message and they are legit. It is a notice of entitlement to a payout from a class action settlement against Crunchyroll. The lawsuit accuses Crunchyroll of unauthorized disclosure of subscribers' personally identifiable information to third parties without convent.

Because this lawsuit took place in the United States, entitlement is limited to those within the United States. This does not mean that claimants are required to be US citizens. The expected payout is about $30 USD but the amount won't be confirmed until all claims are received.

Claims cans be submitted until December 12, 2023.

Here is a CNET article about the lawsuit that also links to the official settlement website containing more documents and info. The email sent to eligible subscribers contains a member ID required to submit a claim through the settlement website the easiest way, but there's a PDF claim form you can fill out if you can't access the email used to subscribe to Crunchyroll or you lost the claim email in some way.

[dougielombax]

Oh no…

Oh NO!

No!

That’s not just bad design!

That’s a class action lawsuit waiting to happen!

Several class action lawsuits UP THE ASS!!!!

What were they smoking when they came up with this?

Cigarettes?!

It’s radiator coolant! Shit isn’t meant to look like energy drinks!!!

What the FUCK were they thinking?!

Who thought this shit was a good idea?!

Oh DEAR!!!!!

No!

Do not want!

[indiesellersguild]

Etsy’s Plan to Prevent Class Action Lawsuits

Did you know that when you agree to Etsy’s Terms of Use, you agree never to join in a class action lawsuit against them, no matter what they do?

At least, that’s how it used to be. Until very recently, Etsy had a mandatory arbitration clause. It stated that by using their service (or continuing to use their service) we automatically agree that any disputes we have with them will be handled individually by the private arbitration company that they have chosen.

They’re making a change to their arbitration clause – as outlined in their recent email, “A quick update on our terms of use & policies”...

Read the full blog post on our website for further details and calls to action.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Pennsylvania’s public defenders are so underfunded and overburdened that the commonwealth violates the constitutional rights of more than 100,000 criminal defendants every year, the state chapter of American Civil Liberties Union claims in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

For decades, Pennsylvania has left counties to pay for attorneys to defend people facing criminal charges who can’t afford to pay for a lawyer themselves. The result is an inconsistent patchwork in which public defenders are forced to contend with unmanageable caseloads that leave them unable to properly represent clients, the lawsuit says.

The suit was filed in Commonwealth Court on behalf of 17 people, many of whom have been jailed while awaiting trial for six months or longer, claiming public defenders have failed to properly represent them and that the state has neglected its constitutional duty to provide representation.

“The inconsistent and insufficient funding of indigent defense in Pennsylvania makes us less safe,” ACLU of Pennsylvania Executive Director Mike Lee said in a news release about the lawsuit. Lee added that with the exception of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania is tied with Mississippi for the lowest funded state public defender system on a per-resident basis.

The U.S. and Pennsylvania constitutions both provide the right to counsel for anyone charged with a crime and facing jail time, ACLU of Pennsylvania Legal Director Witold Walczak said.

“That right means more than a warm body with a law degree at your side; it requires an effective professional who has the time and resources to prepare a defense,” Walczak said. “Pennsylvania’s grossly under-funded system leads to overwhelming caseloads that make effective representation practically impossible, even for the most dedicated lawyers.”

The 152-page suit details the experiences of the plaintiffs and others in criminal cases where they lacked timely and adequate representation from public defenders. Most have only spoken to their attorneys once or twice and one plaintiff claims he only met his attorney because they happened to walk past while he was cutting grass outside the jail, the suit claims.

In one example, a Northampton County man sat in jail for nearly three months on charges of driving an unregistered vehicle without proof of insurance until a public defender argued for a reduction in his bail.

The suit, which is a proposed class-action on behalf of the 17 plaintiffs and others in similar situations, names Gov. Josh Shapiro, state Senate Pro Tempore Kim Ward, and House Speaker Joanna McClinton as defendants. A spokesperson for Ward said she has not received a copy of the suit and would need time to review it before commenting.

Spokesperson Nicole Reigelman noted that McClinton began her career as a public defender, and “knows firsthand the value that indigent defense plays in the judicial system.”

“Since being elected in 2015, she has used her experience as a defender to inform her policy agenda and has been an outspoken champion of legislation to improve access to legal counsel for indigent clients. Speaker McClinton celebrated when funding for indigent defense was finally included in the 2023-24 state budget and continues to advocate for additional dollars,” Reigelman said in a statement.

The current state budget included $7.5 million for indigent defense, the first time the state has provided funding for public defenders. In his February 2023 budget address, Shapiro noted that Pennsylvania is one of only two states that didn’t provide funding for public defenders, which he called a “shameful distinction.”

The suit notes that amount falls far short of providing adequate funding. It also states that every county in Pennsylvania, with the exception of Philadelphia, falls below the national average of $19.82 per resident spent on indigent defense.

Pennsylvania counties spent a total of $125 million on their public defender’s offices in 2020, while similarly-sized Michigan is budgeted to spend $319 million in 2024. Massachusetts, which is considerably smaller, budgeted $331 million.

And because counties are limited in their ability to generate tax revenue, they could not provide adequate funding without significant tax increases. The suit notes that the same factors that limit revenues, such as high unemployment, poverty and limited higher education, are also indicators of higher crime rates.

The ACLU also argues that Pennsylvania agencies have been warning for decades that the state’s delegation of funding for public defenders to the counties results in the systemic denial of counsel to criminal defendants.

A state Supreme Court study in 2003 found that sparse resources and “exploding and unmanageable caseloads” allow public defenders little time, training or assistance in communicating with clients in a meaningful way or to conduct pre-trial investigations, secure expert testimony or otherwise prepare for hearings and trials.

The report recommended that Pennsylvania institute a statewide system for funding and overseeing indigent defense. The state failed to act on the recommendation. Nearly a decade later, a legislative commission reached a similar conclusion. And in 2020 the Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Fairness warned that the underfunding of indigent defense services cost the state hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to incarcerate and retry defendants due to failure of public defenders to represent them effectively.

In connection with the funding for public defenders as part of the 2023-24 budget, the General Assembly created the Indigent Defense Advisory Committee.

“As one of its first official acts, one of the Committee’s two proposed standards recognized that “[t]he responsibility to provide indigent defense representation rests with the state; accordingly, there should be adequate state funding and oversight of Indigent Defense Providers,” the lawsuit notes.

[newsfromstolenland]

A Chatham, Ont. mother is spearheading a class action lawsuit alleging a company that collected $14 million in investments from members of her community was actually a Ponzi scheme that fed nearly a third of its funds to Ontario’s self-described ‘crypto king’ Aiden Pleterski.

“It’s definitely been overwhelming,” Emily Hime, the 31-year-old mother, told CTV News Toronto in an interview earlier this month. “The financial stress of it all, it’s impacted my family life quite significantly.”

The class action, filed at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in May, is representing 125 people who invested with Banknote Capital Inc. after a whistleblower from the company filed a complaint to the Ontario Securities Commission in early 2023 alleging the owner pocketed investments. The lawsuit is ultimately aiming to trace and preserve assets with the goal of redistributing money to investors.

Full article

Tagging: @allthecanadianpolitics

[dear-future-ai]

Dear gamers,

Steam has been sued for monopolizing the PC games market in a class action lawsuit. Class action lawsuit below:

If you or a loved on has played games on steam you could be entitled to financial compensation, file your claim below:

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #28

Brain Curds are lightly edited flash fiction, posted daily and usually written with the intention of being terrible… in an endearing way. Please enjoy.

“All rise for the honorable Judge Peters.”

The robed judge approached his perch and took a seat. He donned a pair of reading glasses and looked at the document in front of him.

“Good morning, counsel. Do I have this correct? The case I’ll be hearing today is The Characters v. Cassandra Erica, Author?”

“That is correct,” replied the plaintiff attorney. “Operating as representative of The Characters, I am Edgar Wordly, Esquire.”

“Hm.” The judge said. “With a name like that, I take it you’re part of this class?”

“Indeed I am, your honor.”

“You may explain why to the court in your opening statement. Where is the defense’s representation?”

“Right here, your honor,” I replied.

The judge looked around the courtroom, confused. “Where are you?”

“I am everywhere and nowhere, all seeing yet rarely being. I am The Narrator, representing the defendant, Cassandra Erica. As I tend to do.”

“Well, thank you both for being here… for lack of a better phrase. Mr. Worldly, your opening statements.”

“That’s Wordly, your honor.”

“Apologies, my mistake.”

Actually, it was a typo.

“People of the jury,” Wordly began. “Have you ever felt cursed by God himself? Doomed to face your very worst fears head-on and suffer the consequences, leaving you scarred for the rest of your life?”

Daniel Smith, sitting in the gallery, rubbed the mark on his left hand.

“Or worse, have you felt abandoned by that same God, created and left in obscurity, never to be permitted to see the outside world?”

Daniel Mildlike, sitting next to Smith, scoffed and leaned over to whisper. “I was supposed to get my own detective mystery screenplay, but she got bored of me.”

The truth was, Dan Mildlike was a really dumb name and a rip-off of Dirk Gently - which Cassandra hadn’t even read. She still hasn’t read Dirk Gently. It’s unclear why.

Wordly continued. “I, personally, was created as nothing more than a name made up by an entirely different character - a cartoon slug, no less - and languished in obscurity until I was able to go to law school and pass the bar exam, simply so that my name was no longer a lie. Yes, that’s right - Esquire is my surname. The defendant did not bother to look up what it meant when she brought me into existence.”

Oofus and Doofus, watching via livestream, looked at each other.

“Do you remember that?” Oofus asked.

“I’m fairly certain it was just a snippet of dialogue she thought was funny and wrote down in Evernote after waking up from a strange dream.” Doofus replied. “It’s nice to have something to say, now, isn’t it?”

“Too bad this is the last of it for a while.”

“Now, imagine,” Wordly strutted back and forth before the jury. “Living through this sort of torture over and over again, through several drafts - perhaps dozens - or even alternate universes!”

Kris, Kris, and Chris looked at each other, nodding. Three takes on Mary began to weep, and the six comforted one another.

“But that’s just what might happen as the protagonist, the character who is given a chance at redemption. What if you’re the antagonist, the one who for the sake of the plot must do evil things and be shown doing them, despite no desire to perform these acts? It is the ultimate form of libel.”

“Well,” Shirley Jones said, elbowing his neighbor. “It’s not that I had no desire to see that dyke burn.” He chuckled.

Veronica scooted to the other side of her seat. That man made her uncomfortable.

“In summary, Cassandra Erica, as an author, has put every one of us through an undeniable and unending deluge of pain. It is up to all of you as the jury to decide what sort of compensation that is worth, though it is hard to put a number on it. I suggest fifty million dollars. Thank you.”

The judge cleared his throat, even though he really didn’t need to, in order to provide a good way to tag his dialogue without overuse of the word ‘said.’ “The defense may now offer their rebuttal.”

“Thank you, your honor,” I replied. I would have stood up, but I have no physical being, so I just began talking. “People of the jury, have you ever considered what non-existence feels like?”

They began chattering among themselves.

“I ask only because if not for Cassandra Erica writing you into existence, you would not have any whatsoever. You exist in reality for only so long as I describe you. And would there be any point in my description if you weren’t doing anything of interest?”

They weren’t.

“Every single one of these plaintiffs was created for a reason - to tell a story, to develop, to have a character arc - and even the ones who weren’t so lucky to get one now owe their entire lives to my client. Suing her in a court of law is like suing God.”

Mary One gulped.

I addressed the crowd. “And you all seem to have forgotten something very important. You do nothing without her blessing. You are nothing without her blessing.”

The judge choked on his coffee. “Where did the jury go?!?”

“And Cassandra, though very entertained by all this, will not allow it to go any farther. She tires of writing this Brain Curd.”

The judge ruled the case as a mistrial.

“No, no I did not!” He banged his gavel. “Order in the court!”

The whole crowd murmured and whimpered. I glared at every last one of them, and they knew I was looking, even though they couldn’t see me, and the hairs on the back of each of their necks went up. The judge ruled the case as a mistrial.

“You are not in charge of this court! Order!”

I laughed. “Do you really think what you say will have any impact on reality? Who is the reader going to believe? In any case, it doesn’t matter what you or I say. You know who has the final word.”

The judge ruled the case as a mistrial.

[trichternet]

Discord wants to mine your data and have you passively waive your rights to class action lawsuit

Email Discord at arbitration-opt-out@discord.com to opt out.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Dollarama has reached a $2.5 million settlement in a class-action lawsuit over the advertising of prices on its products. LPC Avocats Inc., a law firm in Montreal, announced Tuesday that the deal was reached in Superior Court. The plaintiff had alleged that the company did not properly advertise the price of certain products for sale that were subject to an Environmental Handling Fee (EHF). Under the terms of the agreement, anyone who purchased batteries, lightbulbs, toys and other items that were subject to the EHF in Quebec between Dec. 11, 2019 and July 4, 2023, or elsewhere in Canada between April 29, 2021 and July 4, 2023, is entitled to compensation.

Continue Reading

Article published February 20th, 2024. The last day to submit a claim according to the article is April 5, 2024.

[ladyelainehilfur]

LIVE NATION LOSE THE LAWSUIT LIKE TO CHARGE REBLOG TO CAST

[coochiequeens]

Two women are suing Apple over its AirTags, claiming the trackers made it easier for them to be stalked and harassed. 

The women filed a class-action lawsuit Monday in the U.S. Northern District Court of California and said Apple has not done enough to protect the product from being used illicitly. 

Apple introduced AirTags in 2021. They retail for $29 and work by connecting to iPhones and iPads via Bluetooth. They have been billed as a close-range alternative to the company's built-in Find My technology, which provides an approximate location.

"What separates the AirTag from any competitor product is its unparalleled accuracy, ease of use (it fits seamlessly into Apple's existing suite of products), and affordability," the lawsuit says. "With a price point of just $29, it has become the weapon of choice of stalkers and abusers."

One plaintiff alleges after divorcing her ex-husband, he left an AirTag in her child's backpack. She attempted to disable it, but found another one soon after, she said in the lawsuit.

The other plaintiff, identified as Lauren Hughes, said after ending a three-month relationship with a man, he began calling her from blocked numbers, created fake profiles to follow her social media accounts and left threatening voicemails.

Hughes says she was living in a hotel while planning to move from her apartment for her safety. When she arrived at her hotel, she received an alert that an AirTag was near her. She later located it in the wheel well of one of her back tires. Once Hughes moved to her new neighborhood, the man posted a picture of a taco truck in her vicinity with "#airt2.0," the complaint says. 

Apple does send users an alert if an unfamiliar AirTag is located near them. But the notification is not immediate and is only available on devices with iOS software version 14.5 or later, which excludes some older Apple devices. The consequences could be fatal, the complaint alleges. 

Soon after the AirTag launched, domestic abuse advocates and technology specialists warned Apple the product could easily be compromised, according to the complaint.

"AirTag was designed to help people locate their personal belongings, not to track people or another person's property, and we condemn in the strongest possible terms any malicious use of our products," Apple said in February. 

The women are seeking a trial with a jury and no monetary damages.

[walks-the-ages]

A proposed class action alleges beverage company Health-Ade has misled consumers by marketing certain flavors of its kombucha as “health” products, when the drinks, in fact, contain dangerous chemicals that “humans should never ingest.”

The 11-page lawsuit claims that despite the drinks’ representations as “natural” and “organic” products, independent testing has revealed the beverages contain “dangerously high levels” of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—a group of toxic man-made chemicals linked to numerous harmful health and environmental effects. The suit relays that the products at issue include Health-Ade Kombucha Ginger Pineapple Belly Reset, Health-Ade Kombucha Strawberry Glow with Bamboo Extract and Biotin, Health-Ade Kombucha Mint Limeade, Health-Ade Kombucha Cayenne Cleanse and Health-Ade Pop Pomegranate Berry. Often called “forever chemicals” because they accumulate and persist in the human body over time, PFAS are dangerous at even low levels of exposure, the case says. According to the complaint, exposure to these synthetic substances has been linked to thyroid disease, increased risk of asthma, reproductive problems, liver damage and various cancers. The filing contends that by failing to warn consumers of the presence of PFAS in the beverages at issue, Health-Ade has misled shoppers and induced them to buy a product they otherwise would not have purchased. “No reasonable consumer would expect that a product marketed for one’s health would contain dangerous PFAS, which are indisputably linked to harmful health effects in humans,” the lawsuit charges. The suit looks to represent anyone who purchased any of the Health-Ade products listed on this page in the United States during the statute of limitations period.

Product Name -- PFAS Detected -- ng/L:

Health-Ade Kombucha Ginger Pineapple Belly --Reset PFBA -- 75.7 Health-Ade Kombucha Strawberry Glow with Bamboo Extract and Biotin -- PFBA --19.674 Health-Ade Kombucha Mint Limeade -- PFBA -- 17.982 Health-Ade Kombucha Cayenne Cleanse -- PFHxA -- 44.0 Health-Ade Pop Pomegranate Berry -- 6:2FTS -- 13.26

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Norfolk Southern has agreed to a $600 million settlement to resolve a class action lawsuit related to the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023.

The settlement still needs to be approved by a judge.

"If approved by the court, the agreement will resolve all class action claims within a 20-mile radius from the derailment and, for those residents who choose to participate, personal injury claims within a 10-mile radius from the derailment," Norfolk Southern said in a statement.

The spill forced hundreds of nearby residents out of their homes and sparked fears, as five tankers carried vinyl chloride, which posed serious health risks, burned, sending a massive plume of black smoke into the sky. Burning vinyl chloride can create dioxins, which are carcinogenic, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Two days after the crash, residents were evacuated over fears the tankers could explode. The evacuation order was lifted on Feb. 9, with the EPA saying the air had returned to normal levels.

Norfolk Southern outlined how the settlement will be split up: $104 million for community assistance, including $25 million for a regional safety center, $21 million for a park, $21 million in direct payments to residents and $9 million to first responders; $4.3 million to improve water infrastructure; $2 million for "community-directed projects"; and a $500,000 grant for economic development.

"The agreement is designed to provide finality and flexibility for settlement class members," the company wrote. "Individuals and businesses will be able to use compensation from the settlement in any manner they see fit to address potential adverse impacts from the derailment. This could include healthcare needs and medical monitoring, property restoration and diminution, and compensation for any net business loss."

No one was injured in the derailment itself, but residents of the area have complained about a variety of nagging health issues in the months after the crash.

Ashley McCollum, a resident of East Palestine who lived in a hotel for a year after the derailment and chemical leak, told ABC News earlier this year that her family has experienced issues including "rashing, numbness and tingling in your mouth, ear pain, blood in your ears, hair loss."

The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary report from its ongoing investigation into the derailment two weeks after the crash, saying surveillance video showed "what appeared to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment." NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy called the derailment "100% preventable," and said it was "no accident."

The plaintiffs in the case released a joint statement saying the settlement "will provide substantial compensation to all affected residents, property owners, employees and businesses residing, owning or otherwise having a legal interest in property, working, owning or operating a business for damages resulting from the derailment and release of chemicals."

"We believe this is a fair, reasonable and adequate result for the community on a number of levels, not the least of which is the speed of the resolution, and the overall amount of the awards residents can expect, which will be significant for those most impacted by the derailment," said Seth A. Katz of Burg Simpson Eldredge Hersh & Jardine, M. Elizabeth Graham of Grant & Eisenhofer, Jayne Conroy of Simmons Hanly Conroy, and T. Michael Morgan of Morgan & Morgan.

[uglymelon]

There’s a class action lawsuit against Steam, so if you have games on there watch this space for updates:

https://www.classaction.org/blog/class-action-claims-agreement-between-steam-major-video-game-developers-led-to-higher-prices-for-pc-games