Month: October 2009

Week Adjourned: 10.30.09

Bit of irony, no?The Age of the Overtime Class Action…

Top Class Actions

Wells, It’s Official… Wells Fargo is now facing a wages and overtime class action filed by technical support staff who allege that they were not paid for time worked in excess of 40 hours per week.

The suit covers all network engineers, operating systems engineers, information security analysts, technical service specialists, systems support analysts, web engineers, web support engineers, web systems engineers, operating systems analysts (level 2), systems QA analysts (levels 2 or 3), computer operations analysts (levels 3 or 4), database administrators (levels 2 or 3), and applications systems engineers (level 3) who worked for Wells Fargo as exempt employees at any time during the past three years anywhere in the United States. It is estimated that about 3,000 employees are eligible to participate in the unpaid overtime class action.

Eligible employees have 75 days to join the lawsuit.

BOA Constricting Overtime Pay? And then there’s Bank of America: A lawsuit was filed this week on behalf of telephone-dedicated employees for unpaid wages and overtime worked at company call centers across the country. The lawsuit was filed as a collective action, which Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.30.09”

Week Adjourned: 10.23.09

Want a smoke? You may not have a choice at the casinoTop Class Actions

Wynn Gambling with Employees Health? After all the noise about second hand smoke being a known risk factor for cancer, you would think the last thing an employer would want to do is wilfully expose its employees to the carcinogen. At the very least, why risk the lawsuit, right? 



Wrong. The employees at Wynn Las Vegas Hotel and Casino filed a class action lawsuit this week, alleging that Wynn failed to provide a safe work environment for its employees and failed to protect them from the effects of second-hand smoke.

According to the suit, the risks are exacerbated for employees because not only is smoking permitted 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, but it is also encouraged. In some cases the casino gives cigarettes away to gamblers on the casino floor. What? That’s bad judgement no matter how you look at it.

The suit further claims employees that complain about the smoke risk losing their jobs. So, let’s see, you have to choose between risking your health or your livelihood. Or sue. Well—I’d choose the last option as well. 

Top Settlements

New Math on Big Bank Fees: Big Banks = Big Fees = Big Lawsuits = Big Settlements. At Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.23.09”

Week Adjourned: 10.16.09

Whoops! You want that gold necklace back?Top Class Actions…Some biggies this week! 

If it sounds too good to be true…Cash4Gold got hit with a class action lawsuit this week. The allegations include fraud and making misleading statements…

For example, Cash4Gold and its parent company Green Bullion Financial Services, claim to have an ironclad 12-day return policy, however the suit alleges that they often melt the gold they get before the period has elapsed. And Cash4Gold is also quite fond of blaming the US postal service for losing jewelry, the suit claims, when in fact the company has received the jewelry and may already have melted it down. The lawsuit contains a laundry list of allegations around false and misleading claims, makes interesting reading… Maybe their slogan should read “Cash4Gold for Us….”

What do you get when you partner with a company called “Danger”? Some T-Mobile Sidekick folks have unfortunately found out. T-Mobile and Microsoft were also slapped with a class action this week, alleging that they lost “most all the contacts, appointments, photos and other data stored by as many as one million users of the popular T-Mobile Sidekick line of mobile phones.” Ouch.

Apparently, the T-Mobile Sidekick data service went down in early October, after which Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.16.09”

Week Adjourned: 10.9.09

Villa Lago at Renaissance Commons...home sweet chinese drywall home?Top Class Actions

Giving new meaning to Renaissance architecture? Hundreds more people in Florida may be onboard with a new Chinese Drywall class action filed this week. The suit names Coastal Condominiums and Precision Drywall as defendants, and alleges that the toxic drywall used in the construction of Renaissance Commons (at right) is emitting toxic gases into people’s homes. 

During the Florida building boom hundreds of millions of pounds of drywall was shipped to ports around the United States from China. While 25 states have reported issues, problems were first noted in Florida, likely because the defective drywall seems to react strongly in humid conditions. 

Apparently, some 600 Floridians in 30 counties have reported symptoms such as irritated eyes, bloody noses, rashes and insomnia. This certainly puts a new twist on that old expression— ‘there’s no place like home…’

Mario Aliano is one pissed off beer drinker (bad pun, I know). In fact he’s so angry Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.9.09”

Week Adjourned: 10.02.09

Some elderly folks wondered if it really is so great to be in FloridaIt was a busy week for settlements…

Top Settlements

Cloudy Day for the Sunshine State? About 8,500 elderly and disabled Medicaid recipients have been awarded a settlement of $27 million in their class action against the state of Florida. 

The lawsuit, filed in 2008, alleged that the state’s Medicaid program forced the plaintiffs into nursing homes, by making it almost impossible to get funding for home or community-based care. Is this what is meant by “proactive health care?” 

The lawyers for the plaintiffs argued that Florida violated principles of the Olmstead decision, the 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which indicated that the unjustified institutional isolation of people with disabilities is a form of unlawful discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And they won. I should think so! 

Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Right Settlement. A college student who was injured in 2007, when Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 10.02.09”