$50 in free Starkist tuna or $25 check from class action lawsuit

Below is a repost from wral.com. It reads…

If you bought at least one 5 oz. can of select Starkist tuna between 2009 and 2014, you can request a $25 check or $50 in free tuna vouchers as part of a Class-Action Settlement.

The settlement claims that Starkist underfilled its products. In order to avoid continuing the lawsuit, they are offering customers this settlement.

If you bought any of the following cans of tuna during February 2009 – November 2014, fill out the claim form and request $50 in free tuna coupons or a $25 check. You have until November 20, 2015 to complete the form.

Solid White in Water

Solid White in Oil

Chunk Light Tuna in Water

Chunk Light Tuna in Oil

For more details, see https://www.tunalawsuit.com.
Source: here

Ashley Madison Faces $578 Million Class Action Lawsuit

Below is an article originally posted on time.com. It reads…

Two Canadian law firms filed a $578 million class-action lawsuit against the companies that run extramarital-affairs website Ashley Madison over a recent hack that exposed the personal information of about 39 million users.

Charney Lawyers and Sutts, Strosberg LLP—two Canadian law firms—filed the suit on Thursday on behalf of Canadians whose personal information was breached in a company hack. The Toronto-based Avid Dating Life and Avid Life Media, which run the company, are named in the suit.

The lawsuit’s class-action status remains to be certified by the court.

“Numerous former users of AshleyMadison.com have approached the law firms to inquire about their privacy rights under Canadian law,” the firms said in a statement. “They are outraged that AshleyMadison.com failed to protect its users’ information. In many cases, the users paid an additional fee for the website to remove all of their user data, only to discover that the information was left intact and exposed.”

The statement went on to say that the class action lawsuit will not seek damages from the hackers who leaked the information.

Ashley Madison has said in previous statements that its members cannot be proven to have had extramarital relationships based on membership with the site alone.

The plaintiff is Eliot Shore, who said he briefly joined Ashley Madison following the death of his wife to breast cancer. Shore said his membership did not result in any meetings with members of the site and that he never cheated on his wife.

The suit joins a $5 million class-action lawsuit filed in Missouri in July. The anonymous female plaintiff in that case claimed she’d paid $19 to Ashley Madison to run a “paid-delete” of her personal information, which was unsuccessful.

Source: here

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GE Retirees Seek Class Action Status for Lawsuit

repost from wnpr.com. It reads…

A lawsuit against General Electric is being closely watched in boardrooms around America, as the company defends its decision to shut down its retiree health care plan.

In 2012, GE announced to its some of its retirees that they would no longer be part of its GE Medicare Benefits Plan. In 2014, the entire plan was scrapped. Instead, the conglomerate would give them a thousand dollars each year, with which they could purchase coverage through Towers Watson – a private health exchange plan.

But according to Tom Geoghegan, the attorney for the plaintiffs, earlier in 2012, GE had issued a key promise.

“GE in its summary plan description repeatedly said that it both expected and intended to continue the benefits, as described in those handbooks, indefinitely,” Geoghegan told WNPR. His clients are two former GE workers in Milwaukee, Dennis Rocheleau and Evelyn Kaufman.

Geoghegan said that promise in the handbook, that GE would do its best to continue the plan, is the basis of the suit.

“There has long been a rule in commercial contracts that promises that say ‘well, we’ll do the best we can, but we can’t guarantee it,’ are still enforceable. You do have to do the best you can. And GE is still profitable. If the cost per participant hasn’t increased in any significant way, there’s no reason why GE cannot continue the plan and fulfill that promise,” Geoghegan said.

Because the suit asks that the entire plan be reinstated, it’s now seeking class action on behalf of about 65,000 former GE workers and their spouses, including many in Connecticut.

Similar cost saving strategies, outsource retiree health benefits, and other expenses are becoming a commonplace in corporate America. While Geoghegan said the facts of each case are unique, when the lawsuit goes to court sometime next year, it’s likely to give companies and labor relations experts a lot to think about.

Source: here

Uber’s Desperate Fight to Avoid a Massive Class Action Suit

Repost from Wired.com. It reads…

SILICON VALLEY BEHEMOTH Uber is no stranger to court battles. Still, this week saw the tech giant face one of its biggest courtroom confrontations yet: Trying to convince a judge to block a lawsuit from proceeding to class-action status.

On Thursday, the company with a whopping $51 billion valuation, went before US District Judge Edward Chen for a hearing in which the judge pondered whether he would grant class-action status to the suit, which seeks mileage and tip reimbursement for 160,000 Uber drivers in California.

The hearing comes as on-demand companies like Uber, Lyft and Postmates surge in popularity and reach, creating a vast pool of cheap, flexible labor. According to the nonprofit Freelancers Union, 53 million Americans now work as freelance contractors. That’s about one in three US workers. The American Action Forum says independent contractors account for nearly 29 percent of all jobs added between 2010 and 2014. And the so-called 1099 economy already appears to be emerging as a key issue in the upcoming 2016 presidential campaign.

But even as on-demand companies move into the mainstream, critics are calling for broader protections of workers, who as independent contractors do not receive benefits like Social Security, Medicare, and workers’ compensation and cannot unionize. A slew of complaints about the loss of such benefits has rocked the industry and could threaten the entire business model of the on-demand economy.

In June, the California Labor Commission ruled that a San Francisco-based Uber driver should be considered an employee and should receive compensation for mileage and other expenses. (The decision, which Uber is appealing, does not carry the force of court precedent.) In what could be considered pre-emptive moves, some companies, including Instacart, Luxe, and Shyp have announced plans to convert some or all employees to part- or full-time status. Just this week, food-delivery startup Sprig joined them, and company CEO Gagan Biyani said the lawsuits facing other on-demand companies were a factor in the decision.

Of these suits, the one facing Uber is the furthest along. It could be weeks before Chen issues a decision on whether to elevate the suit to class action status. Should he do so, the suit could involve the largest number of plaintiffs against an on-demand company so far.

The Court Hearing

Uber’s lead counsel, Ted Boutrous, has been down this road before. Four years ago, he went before the Supreme Court and had class action status overturned in Walmart v. Dukes. On Thursday, he told Chen lumping the issues of hundreds of thousands of drivers into a single suit would be ill-advised because there is no such thing as a typical Uber driver. Beyond that, he argued, converting Uber drivers to employee would threaten the flexibility and independence drivers enjoy, because the suit would challenge the company’s business model.

Shannon Liss-Riordan wasn’t buying it. She’s representing Uber drivers and has filed similar cases against Lyft, Caviar, Postmates and Homejoy, the latter of which has shut down in large part because of labor suits filed against the company. She told Chen that the question of whether Uber drivers prefer to be employees or contractors is legally irrelevant. Moreover, wage laws exist not only to protect workers, but to provide a check against businesses undercutting the competition to gain an unfair competitive advantage. (According to the National Employment Law Project, businesses stand to save up to 30 percent of payroll tax costs by classifying workers as independent contractors.)

Early in the hearing, Chen questioned whether making Uber drivers employees really would cost them some flexibility. “A lot of folks might think, ‘Suddenly, I’m an employee and I’m going to be called in at 8 a.m. and told to get down here,’” Chen said. “That might be a false assumption.”

He seemed skeptical of Uber’s arguments. “How can you argue that [every Uber driver] is an independent contractor, it’s clear, and yet there are individual variables here that preclude class certification?” he asked Boutrous.

Chen already ruled in March that the suit could move to jury trial, which is where the merits of the case would be debated—such as who has the right of control, drivers or the company. But in court, Chen noted certain commonalities among those issues of control, which seemed to suggest an inclination to certify the class. Chen said monitoring driver performance using Uber’s star rating system and controlling fares seemed very much within Uber’s control, not to mention Uber’s right to terminate a driver with sole discretion and without cause. But he did note some issues that did not seem to be in Uber’s control, such as routes and schedules.

Liss-Riordan pressed those uniform issues of control, arguing the suit could be stronger than a case in which FedEx recently agreed to a $228 million settlement compensating some 2,000 delivery drivers deemed employees, not contractors. That’s because of Uber’s constant monitoring from its star-rating system.

But Boutrous pushed back, saying the fact its drivers could work for any on-demand company they choose once they are on the road. He argued that drivers aren’t compelled by a duty or loyalty to Uber, and compared them to journalism freelancers. “Suppose a journalist worked for both the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times and gets a great story,” he mused in court. “With duty of loyalty, how does that journalist pick a publication?”

Boutrous also cited the company’s 17 agreements for drivers—calling them “licensing agreements with an app,” not employee contracts—as evidence that the group is so fractious the suit should not be certified as a class. The agreements evolved as Uber revised its terms over time at the discretion of teams in different cities, and Boutrous argued that they differ in substantial ways. “We have UberX, Uber Black, we have great variability,” he said.

The two sides couldn’t even agree on when the judge should consider making the suit a class action—a decision that could be reversed later, as was the case in Walmart v. Dukes.

“Let’s just first have a trial, instead of certifying a class,” pleaded Uber’s Boutrous.

“Uber could file a motion for decertification,” Liss-Riordan countered. She told Chen, “You could make the decision before the ultimate decision is decided.”

In the end, Chen punted, deciding not to rule from the bench. He’ll make a decision in the weeks to come, but even he concedes someone may likely second-guess it. “I intend to go forward on this and rule and throw the dice,” he said. “The chances are a higher court will have a look at whatever I do.”

Source: here

Jail officers sue over pay, seek $7M from Metro government

Repost from tennessean.com. It reads…

Are the hundreds of correctional officers who work in five Nashville jail facilities supposed to be paid hourly or based on an annual salary?

That is a central question being posed to an eight-member federal jury this week. How the jury rules could lead to Metro government facing a more than $7 million payment of back wages.

The class-action case includes more than 850 current and past Davidson County Sheriff’s Office corrections officers who are suing Metro government. The trial began with opening statements Tuesday and could extend into next week.

“The Metro government pays its correctional officers at lower hourly rates than it’s required to do,” attorney David Garrison, of Nashville firm Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison, told the jury. The firm represents the employees.

“The Metro government pays its correctional officers at lower hourly rates than it tells them that they are getting paid. The Metro government pays its correctional officers at lower hourly rates than it tells the public it pays them. That’s what the case is about. It’s very simple.”

The case stems from the employees’ actual time worked and how they are told they will get paid (hourly or salary), according to attorneys and court filings in the case. The case has been pending since 2011.

The employees say they earn hourly wages. But they say Metro pays them by dividing an annual salary by their hours worked. Because that is over 40 hours each week, the employees say they are paid less than the hourly wage listed in the city’s pay plan. They say underpayments have been ongoing since 2006.

Assistant Metro Attorney Chris Lackey said in his opening statement there was “no effort to dupe the employees.” He said new hires were told early on about 8 1/2 and 12-hour shifts and pay based on an annual salary. The city also says that this dispute should be resolved internally, not in court.

Employees who previously raised concern about their wages were routinely told by human resources supervisors they were salary employees, Lackey said. He said Vonda Noel, who is named in the case and represents the rest of the employees in the lawsuit, was paid 185 times before making a complaint. Noel started working for the sheriff’s office in 2004, he said.

Court documents show the jury’s job is to decide whether Metro government benefited, or was “unjustly enriched,” because of the pay plan. If the jury rules in favor of the employees, a federal judge will decide how much restitution the city should pay. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Kevin H. Sharp is overseeing the trial.

The employees are asking for up to $7.04 million, according to court filings.

Source: here

Man Takes on Uber in Possible Class Action Lawsuit

Repost from abclosangeles.com.

A Southern California man has filed a lawsuit against Uber for the ride-sharing app’s price claims and regulation of free ride vouchers, which he hopes to make a class-action lawsuit.

Sennett Devermont is the creator of Mr. Checkpoint, an app that notifies its users of DUI checkpoint locations. He said he has taken nearly 500 rides with Uber in the last two years, and regularly recommends the service through his app to encourage drunken drivers to get home safely.

“I personally use Uber every day. I think it’s a good service that can benefit people,” Devermont said. “They just need to not mislead people and do what they promise.”

Devermont doesn’t believe Uber’s claim on their website that UBERx rides are cheaper than they would be in a taxicab. He has filed a lawsuit against the company that he and his attorney Michael Cohen hope will become a class-action lawsuit.

The Uber Android app reads, “It’s easier than a taxi and often cheaper!” while the iPhone app doesn’t mention the price difference. Yet, Uber’s website describes UBERx as, “Better, faster, and cheaper than a taxi.”

“If they tell me it’s going to be cheaper than a cab, that is what needs to occur,” Devermont said.

Devermont has also found issue with the “free ride” vouchers granted for referring a new Uber user to the app, because he claims the app failed to notify users that the voucher expired in three months.

Uber allegedly only notified the user that the voucher, for up to $20 toward a free Uber ride, could not be used for Uber Taxi, he said.

“Lots of people tell their friends about Uber and share with their family for the free rides,” Devermont said. “I don’t think they know the rides expire.”

Devermont said he used to stock up on vouchers from his referrals because the emails containing his vouchers said nothing about an expiration date. But the emails he gets now include that the vouchers expire, he added.

“If they say they’re giving me a credit for getting a user, let me keep that credit,” Devermont added. “If you’re saying I’m going to get home cheaper than a cab, make sure I’m getting home cheaper than a cab.”

Devermont’s attorney said their goal is to return money to other people who feel they have been cheated in a way similar to Devermont.

“But ultimately the court will have to decide if it can be a class action,” Cohen said.

Until then, they are hoping more people will come forward so they can gather evidence toward the lawsuit. Whether or not it can be a class-action lawsuit will likely be decided on by the Los Angeles Superior Court in the next few months.

“We’ve already had people come forward saying they’ve had the same experience as Mr. Devermont. And we’d like to have more,” Cohen said.

Uber officials said they don’t comment on pending litigation.

Source: here

Wage Lawsuit Against Skadden Arps Can Proceed, Appeals Court Says

Repost from wsj.com. It reads…

A lawsuit demanding overtime pay from law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP can proceed, an appeals court ruled Thursday, potentially clearing the way for temporary lawyers hired to do routine document review to earn extra wages.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling came in a lawsuit brought against Skadden and legal staffing agency Tower Legal Solutions by an attorney who claims he deserves overtime for a $25-an-hour assignment reviewing documents on a Skadden case.

The case is being watched closely in the legal industry as contract attorneys are now routinely hired to review large volumes of documents in the early stages of litigation and investigations. In a tough market for legal employment, many law school graduates end up jumping from one contract assignment to the next to earn a living.

Under federal labor laws, employers aren’t required to pay licensed lawyers overtime pay for time logged in excess of 40 hours a week if what they are doing is considered legal work.

But the plaintiff, David Lola, says he deserves extra pay because the tasks he did were so basic they shouldn’t qualify as practicing law. Mr. Lola said in his 2013 lawsuit that his work entailed searching documents for predetermined terms, sorting them into categories, and at times making redactions based on procedures given to him.

The appeals court agreed. While finding that state laws should dictate what is considered practicing law, the court said that Mr. Lola adequately showed in his complaint that “he failed to exercise any legal judgment” on the document-review assignment.

A “fair reading,” of his lawsuit is that “he provided services that a machine could have provided,” the court said.

The ruling doesn’t create a precedent on how to define legal practice, but legal observers say it could open the door for other courts to find that some document review isn’t the practice of law.

Some say Thursday’s decision could lead to unintended consequences. Shari Klevens, the co-chair of the law firm practice at Dentons, said “a trend toward classifying this work as non-legal” could result in clients refusing to pay for skilled workers to take on such assignments, causing the work to “get pushed down to the lowest common denominator.”

Mr. Lola’s case will now continue to be litigated in Manhattan federal court.

“We hope contract attorneys all over the country stand up for their rights,” said Mr. Lola’s lawyer, D. Maimon Kirschenbaum. “We hope that law firms learn their lesson.”

Mr. Kirschenbaum represents other contract attorneys in two similar suits, which had been on hold until the Second Circuit ruled.

Skadden and Tower declined to comment on the decision.

The ruling comes as the U.S. Labor Department weighs a regulation that would expand the number of workers eligible for overtime pay. The proposal would more than double the threshold that generally determines which salaried workers are eligible for overtime to those earning less than $50,400 annually, or $970 a week.

The new rule would expand overtime pay to about 4.6 million more workers, the Labor Department said.

Source: here

Lyft lawsuit in Tampa says drivers are employees

Repost from tbo.com. It reads…

A Riverview man has filed what he hopes will be a nationwide class action suit against ride-hailing company Lyft Inc., alleging Lyft designates its drivers as independent contractors instead of employees to avoid paying minimum wage and overtime.

The complaint asks the court to declare anyone who worked as a Lyft driver between June 2012 and now as a member of the class, eligible to join the suit. In his complaint, Fequiere Frederic contends there are some 1,000 drivers or more who should also be brought in to the “collective action.”

Frederic filed suit in U.S. District Court in Tampa earlier this month, also complaining that the company is violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by having drivers operate without proper permitting and insurance. The suit says the company forces its drivers to incur fines and perform community service or pay to have criminal records sealed at their own expense.

Frederic is asking for a jury trial.

For now, ride share companies are illegally operating in Hillsborough County. Uber Technologies Inc. and Lyft are negotiating with the Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission over rules that would make it legal for its drivers to operate here.

But until those negotiations are finalized, the PTC has continued to cite drivers for illegal operation in the county.

Here is how ride-hail companies work: Those wishing to get a ride download an app on to their smart phones then use it to arrange a ride. The customer pays a fee pre-set by the company and collected on line. A message is sent from the ride company to its drivers in the area, one of whom shows up to provide transportation in his or her own car — a car inspected by a company contractor. In addition to the preset fee, the company also takes a portion of any gratuity a customers adds.

Brandon Hill, Frederic’s attorney, declined to comment on the suit, as did Delaware-based Lyft, issuing a statement saying it does not comment on pending litigation.

Frederic, who worked as a contract driver for Lyft from January 2013 to October 2014, is part of a growing list of drivers to challenge ride share companies for classifying them as independent contractors rather than employees. Several suits have been brought in California.

Federal judges ruled in March to move forward two separate lawsuits claiming that Uber and Lyft unfairly consider their drivers as freelancers and not employees.

One northern California complaint against Uber, Douglas O’Connor vs. Uber Technologies Inc., says, “Those contracts explicitly provide that the relationship between the transportation providers and Uber/Raiser4 “is solely that of independent contracting parties.” The parties “expressly agree that this agreement is not an employment agreement or employment relationship.”

In a California case against Lyft, Patrick Cotter vs. Lyft, Inc., the judge refused to issue a summary judgment for either side, instead saying a jury should decide.

In denying cross motions for summary judgment in march, U.S. Judge Vince Chhabria wrote, “As should now be clear, the jury in this case will be handed a square peg and asked to choose between two round holes.”

Source: here

Potential Federal Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against T.J. Maxx over Decepetive Pricing

Two shoppers of TJ Maxx have filed a class action suit against the retailer for “deceptive pricing” behaviors. Many outlet and discounted retailers engage in a pricing structure where they offer “compare at” or “manufacrurer’s suggested retail price” next to the price they are selling it at. Its known that often times those additional prices have no merit and are made up by the retailer to make the consumer think they are getting an exceptional deal. For example, TJ Maxx might be selling a t-shirt for $15.00 and have a compare at price of $30.00, making you think that at other retailers, the same shirt would sell for that price.

This practice, referred to as price anchoring, is the subject of this lawsuit. In the complaint the plantiffs attorneys explain:

The comparative price assures consumers like Plaintiffs that they are receiving an exceptionally good deal and saving a specific dollar amount equal to the difference between the two prices. Defendants’ price tags deceptively instruct customers to “compare” the sale prices of their products to these higher comparative prices. The comparative prices, however, are false. They are not true, bona fide comparative prices.

here is a copy of the lawsuit if you want to read further.

Religious Discrimination Lawsuit Filed Against UPS by EEOC

The EEOC claims the shipping companies look policy does not provide religious accomodation to potential employees and current workforce.

UPS requires that its male employees who hold a supervisor position or come in contact with customers keep their hair above collar length and facial hair is to be no longer then the lip, according to the lawsuit. The company alledgely instructs Muslims and Christians to shave their beards while awaiting religious accomodation that takes months to years to recieve. The EEOC filed on Wednesday accusing the company of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits from employers discriminating against applicants because of religion and requires the company to provide reasonable accomodation so long as it does not cause undue harm the employer.

The lawsuit cites many instances where the company refused to hire someone including a Muslim who applied for a driver assistant position in Rochester, N.Y., and was told that “God would understand” if had to trim his bread. If he chose not to we was told he could apply for a lower paying job. A UPS manager told a Rastafarian who asked for religious accomodation to wear his hair long that “employees looking like women on his management team” was not welcome. A Native American applicant who wore long hair for religious reasons was told “no hair cut, no job.”

“UPS has persistently enforced its appearance policy even when that policy conflicts with the religious beliefs of its applicants and employees,” Robert D. Rose, the regional attorney for EEOC’s New York District Office, said in a statement. “No person should be forced to choose between their religion and a paycheck.”

The statement said that early attempts to settle outside of court failed resulting in the filing. The lawsuit aims to modify UPS’s practices for religious accomodation, recover lost wages and provide damages to those who have been effected by the companies illegal practices.

UPS said it “will review that case, and defend its practices that demonstrate a proven track record for accomodation.”