|

 

The rulings made by appellate courts can affect many decisions to come in rulings made by lower courts all over the country. In a recent data breach lawsuit against Neiman Marcus, the retailer argued the ruling made by the Seventh Circuit Court could have long-term effects on data breach law if the court failed to change its ruling.

The court denied Neiman Marcus’s appeal and let its initial decision stand.

The consumer lawsuit consists of a proposed class of about 350,000 plaintiffs who allegedly suffered financial damages as a result of a security breach of Neiman Marcus’s systems in 2013. The plaintiffs allege the retailer did not take all necessary precautions in preventing or mitigating a security breach that exposed customers’ payment card details. The data breach lawsuit also alleges Neiman Marcus did not notify its customers of the data breach in a timely manner, once the security attack had happened. Continue reading ›

|

NPR reports:

MARTIN: This past week, the German car giant Volkswagen admitted to cheating emissions tests with a device built into VW diesel engines. Just hours after the story broke, a Seattle-based law firm filed a consumer class-action suit against Volkswagen. And by Friday, the number of federal suits that had been filed against VW had reached at least 34. That number seems to be climbing. Here to talk through the number of class-action suits is data journalist Mona Chalabi.

Hi, Mona.

CHALABI: Hi, Rachel.

MARTIN: Explain this number. Where did these 34 cases come from?

CHALABI: All over the country, actually. There’s been a bit of a gold rush for this – and I can tell you a little bit about the gold kind of later on. But for now, I just want to explain really quickly what a class-action lawsuit is because it wasn’t completely clear to me. So it’s a type of lawsuit where one or several people sue on behalf of a much larger group. And it’s that larger group that is known as the class. And in the case of Volkswagen, almost 500,000 cars have been recalled in the U.S. alone.

MARTIN: Is there any precedent for this?

CHALABI: Yeah, absolutely. So class-action lawsuits of this kind are sort of common. In 2012, Toyota agreed to pay $1.1 billion to settle a class-action suit to car owners who said they lost money because of a fault in their vehicles. It was a really serious flaw as well. The car actually accelerated automatically, and that fault resulted in at least one death.

MARTIN: As you mentioned, Toyota paid out over a billion dollars. Does that mean that individuals can get big payouts in these kinds of cases?

CHALABI: They can do, but not necessarily. So one plaintiff in that particular case, a computer science student called Jonathan Sourbeer, said he got a check for $20.91 from Toyota for his vehicle flaw. And I think what’s really striking about that is when you compare those sums to what the lawyers are getting. So in that case, there were 85 plaintiff lawyers who, between them, managed to get $227 million in fees and costs from Toyota.

Continue reading ›

|

Wage and hour lawsuits in which plaintiffs allege they have been misclassified as independent contractors have become increasingly common in recent years.

The entrepreneurial spirit continues to thrive in those who like the idea of being their own boss, but there’s no advantage when you have someone else as your boss, without any of the benefits that employee status entails. Continue reading ›

|

Companies doing business in America are influenced by multiple factors. Not only do they need to keep track of the federal and local laws that vary between states and even cities, but court systems in different locations treat businesses differently.

Every year, the Lawsuit Climate Survey is used to rank states on how fair they are to businesses that get sued. This year, the survey was conducted by Harris, a polling firm, on behalf of the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform.

In 2010, Illinois was ranked 45th, out of all 50 states and it’s only gotten worse since then. In 2012, the last time the survey was conducted, Illinois ranked 46th. Now the most recent poll has put us in 48th place, ahead of only Louisiana and West Virginia. Continue reading ›

|

The line between freedom of speech and defamation can be a fine line at times. Although the First Amendment to the United States Constitution allows us to speak our minds, it does not give us total immunity when saying things that have the potential to seriously damage another person’s reputation and/or career.

That line is again being contested in a current defamation lawsuit against Bill Cosby. Three women, Tamara Green, Therese Serignese, and Linda Traitz, who are just three of dozens of women who claim they were sexually assaulted by Cosby decades ago are now filing a lawsuit against the entertainer for defamation.

The lawsuit alleges Cosby’s representatives damaged their reputations by denying their allegations of sexual assault in language that was sometimes disparaging. They claim their accusations were dismissed as “ridiculous claims” and “absurd fabrications” to give two of the shorter alleged remarks. The lawsuit alleges these comments were intended to discredit the victims. One statement allegedly touched on Traitz’s criminal and personal record to discredit her allegations. Continue reading ›

|

NPR reports:

According to Moody’s Analytics, there were 700,000 foreclosures last year. And some of those people probably didn’t need to lose their homes. Even now, more than six years after the housing crash, lawyers for homeowners say mortgage companies are still making mistakes and foreclosing on homes when they shouldn’t be.

Ocwen Financial Corp. is facing an investigation by regulators and a new lawsuit over its treatment of homeowners facing foreclosures. The class-action suit alleges that Ocwen has been charging marked-up, illegal fees and unfairly pushing homeowners into foreclosure.

Continue reading ›

|

The class action lawsuit is a powerful tool for plaintiffs, particularly consumers. The costs associated with filing a lawsuit are too high to justify filing for a small claim, because the cost of the lawsuit would be greater than the potential payout. Class actions address this issue by allowing many plaintiffs with the same, or similar complaints to file one lawsuit together. With enough class members, the combined claims are often more than enough to justify filing a lawsuit. It also provides the plaintiffs with greater leverage against their defendants, who tend to be large corporations with a team of lawyers at their disposal.

Big businesses have been arguing against class actions and trying to make it more difficult for class actions to make it to the courts. One of the ways they have done this is by requiring consumers to sign contracts that include arbitration clauses in which the consumer agrees to settle all disputes with the company in arbitration, which does not allow class actions. Continue reading ›

|

It all started with a little law that discriminated against signs for church services in favor of signs promoting political candidates. It’s clear why citizens would take exception to such a law. What’s less clear is how the Supreme Court, in its ruling on the matter, managed to wreak havoc on all laws regulating signs, labels, and even automated phone calls.

Not only did the Supreme Court invalidate the law in question, but it has forced lower courts to invalidate on issues as unrelated as panhandling. Continue reading ›

|

In today’s increasingly digital age, it has become easier than ever for hackers to gain access to people’s personal information, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft. Most major credit card companies offer monitoring services to protect customers from fraudulent charges, but they charge an extra fee for these services and many people don’t want to pay the extra fee if they don’t have to.

More often than not, large companies are the targets of cyberattacks, but it’s not usually the company that experiences any negative outcomes from the attacks. Instead, it’s the customers and/or employees whose personal information was compromised in the attack who suffer. The companies rarely experience any consequences of these attacks until someone files a lawsuit against the company for failing to take the proper security measures to protect against these data breaches. Continue reading ›

|

Your employer may demand that its new new employees sign a non-compete agreement before you start the job or if it is implementing a new program requiring such agreements. Such agreements usually go into effect when you leave that company. Employers ask you to sign non-competition agreements for a variety of different concerns.  These concerns are protection of trade secrets, customer relationships and business goodwill.  Courts generally disapprove of non-competition agreements if they simply are designed to limit and restrict a former employee’s right to earn a living. Non-competition agreements are therefore closely scrutinized by the courts for reasonableness and to make sure that they are not overly restrictive.

The Law’s Criteria for Non-Compete Agreements

In order to be considered legal, a non-compete agreements must:

  • Be supported by consideration (provision of some benefit to the worker) at the time signed;
  • Protect a legitimate business interests of the employer; and
  • Be reasonable (as opposed to overly and unnecessarily broad) in scope, geography, and time.

Non-compete agreements must generally be supported by legally valid and legitimate consideration — the employee must receive something of value in exchange for the promise to refrain from competition.  In Illinois this can be a payment of money or two years of employment following signing the non-compete or other benefits. If an employee signs a non-competition agreement prior to beginning employment, the employment itself will be sufficient consideration for the promise not to compete if such employment continues for two years. Continue reading ›

Contact Information
Chicago Office
19 S LaSalle St #702
Chicago, IL 60603
Phone: 630-333-0333
Mailing Address
17W220 22nd St #410
Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181
Phone: 630-333-0333 Please direct all mail correspondence to our Oakbrook Terrace address.
Highland Park Office
189 Whistler Rd
Highland Park, IL 60035
Phone: 630-710-4990
We accept the following credit cards
Credit Cards Accepted
We accept payment via Venmo at: @L-A-LAW

Please direct all mail correspondence to our Oakbrook Terrace address.

Phone: 603-333-0333
Visit our site: chicagobusinesslawfirm.com

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Please do not include any confidential or sensitive information in a contact form, text message, or voicemail. The contact form sends information by non-encrypted email, which is not secure. Submitting a contact form, sending a text message, making a phone call, or leaving a voicemail does not create an attorney-client relationship.

Copyright © 2024, Lubin Austermuehle, P.C.
JUSTIA Law Firm Blog Design