The Wall Street Journal reports: Martha Kunkle has come back to life.She died in 1995. Yet her signature later appeared on thousands of affidavits submitted by one of the nation’s largest debt collectors, Portfolio Recovery Associates Inc., in lawsuits filed against borrowers. The article describes that Portfolio Recovery Associates…
Netflix faces an antitrust conspiracy trial for allegedly entering into an illegal agreement with Wal-Mart to divide retail dvd markets. Wal-Mart settled the claims against it for a settlement valued at $40 million. Netflix has so far refused to settle and a trial date is set for January 2012.…
The blog classactionblawg provides an excellent summary of important class action decisions from the past year. You can read this blog post by clicking here. Our Woodstock, Illinois consumer rights private law firm handles individual and class action predatory lending, unfair debt collection, lemon law and other consumer fraud…
We here at Lubin Austermuehle often represent our clients in federal court, and our practice includes handling wage and hour disputes so we keep an eye on such cases filed in Illinois. In re AON Corp. is the consolidation of a New York case with an action filed in Illinois…
Lubin Austermuehle’s Chicago business trial lawyers have more than two and half decades of experience helping business clients on unraveling complex business fraud and breach of fiduciary duty cases. Our Chicago business law attorneys work with skilled forensic accountants and certified fraud examiners to help recover monies missappropriated from our…
The Wall Street Journal reports that Hilton settled a corporate espionage suit brought against it by Starwood. Hilton hired two former Starwood executives who allegedly stole over 100,000 documents belonging to Starwook outlining many of Starwood’s key marketing plans and ideas for liefstyle chains such as W. Hilton settled the…
In a case that presented questions very interesting to our Chicago arbitration and mediation attorneys, the Fourth District Court of Appeal has ruled that standing to arbitrate is not an issue that should itself be submitted to arbitration. In Equistar Chemicals, LP v. Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company…
The Kentucky Supreme Court rejected a contractual ban on class actions by Insignt in a case regarding a mass shut down of consumer internet services The Court held a class action “is often the only economically viable legal procedure” to address a large volume of very small claims, the…
Our Illinois alternative dispute resolution lawyers noted an opinion from the Fifth District Court of Appeal reversing a trial court that declined to compel arbitration. In Hollingshead v. A. G. Edwards & Sons, Inc., No. 1-09-0067 (Ill. 5th Jan. 22, 2009), the court ruled there simply was not enough evidence…
A fine balance exists between consumer laws which the government believes protect consumers from scams and interfering with the free market and access to justice. Credit repair organizations which take money in advance can perform a valuable service to help consumers get refinancing but many unscrupulous credit repair outfits…