ST. LOUIS (Legal Newsline) – A group objecting to a $10 million class action settlement stemming from a 2013 Target data breach has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit to vacate the class certification order.
The U.S. Department of Labor and its new secretary, R. Alexander Acosta, last week notified a Minnesota federal court that it submitted to the Office of Management and Budget, or OMB, proposed amendments to three exemptions. The proposed amendments include an “extension of transition period and delay of applicability dates” from Jan. 1, 2018 to July 1, 2019.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - Business and banking interests are working to ensure that an upcoming Senate attempt to rescind the Consumer Financial Bureau Protection’s (CFPB) anti-arbitration rule plays out differently than repeated failures by Senate Republicans to repeal any or all of Obamacare. And they are enlisting help on the state level to do it.
The U.S. Department of Labor said earlier this month it would move forward -- under the direction of President Donald Trump -- with its efforts to delay the April 10 applicability date of the new “conflicts of interest” rule. The department said under its proposal the applicability date of the rule and related exemptions would be extended to June 9.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Dangling the prospect of taking on an unpopular industry, trial lawyers are getting state attorneys general to team up on cases.
Judge Barbara M.G. Lynn, in a detailed 81-page order released Wednesday, shot down each of the plaintiffs’ major arguments, most notably deciding that the rule does not exceed the U.S. Department of Labor’s authority.
The president’s order, signed Friday, instructs the U.S. Department of Labor to conduct a new study to determine whether the rule is likely to harm investors and the financial industry, and if it does, the rule can be rescinded or revised.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s congressional agenda, which was released last week, focuses on eight policy areas, including regulatory reform and agency oversight, banking and finance, and labor and employment, among other topics.
Those within the financial services community seem hopeful, with Donald Trump’s presidential win Tuesday, that the U.S. Department of Labor’s conflicts of interest rule is in play.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) and the Consumer Advocates for Smoke-free Alternatives Association (CASAA) are continuing their fight against a final rule enacted by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) that prohibits the use of electronic cigarettes on airplanes. The groups have filed an opening brief in response to a petition for review of the rule that was filed in April.
The rejected settlement purported to require Similasan to make label changes and maintain a website concerning homeopathic “dilution principles.” No unnamed class members would have received any compensation under the rejected agreement, and class attorneys would have been awarded more than $500,000.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) - A District of Columbia-based organization recently filed an anti-SLAPP motion in D.C. Superior Court after objecting to a subpoena that originated in the United States Virgin Islands by its attorney general Claude E. Walker.
The rule, sometimes referred to as the conflicts of interest rule, mandates financial professionals who service individual retirement accounts, including IRAs and 401(k) plans, to serve the “best interest” of the savers and disclose conflicts of interest.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (Legal Newsline) – A legal battle continues to brew in Charleston, S.C. over the proposed redevelopment of a 1950's-era high-rise building. It's a fight that could have repercussions for developers doing business in historic preservation districts across the country.
Pella Corporation filed a motion to dismiss in February. The action was sent back to Illinois federal court in 2014 after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit overturned approval of an estimated $90 million class action settlement involving the company and removed Chicago attorney Paul M. Weiss as class counsel. Weiss was disbarred in November by the Illinois Supreme Court.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is not pleased that ExxonMobil questions the impact of global warming and that it donates to think tanks that occasionally challenge conventional wisdom.
The Center for Class Action Fairness, now a subunit of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, filed its petition for a writ of certiorari with the court in December. It argues plaintiffs lawyers received the largest share of the settlement’s benefits and used cy pres awards to help exaggerate the class relief and thus inflate their fees.
WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit recently upheld a lower court’s ruling that approved a settlement in a case against LexisNexis, which was accused of violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
The public interest law firm last week asked a federal appeals court to review its previous decision, which upheld more than $5 million in fees for class counsel.
