Week Adjourned: 8.28.09

Top Class Actions

Time for a little self-monitoring? CardioNet got hit with a securities class action lawsuit this week. What did they do? Well, the complaint charges that the company and some of its directors got a little carried away with their revenue projections for 2009, 2010 and 2011, particularly in light of the fact that the reimbursement rates for their MCOT services was under review by payors, and were likely to be reduced, not increased.  FYI—CardioNet “provides ambulatory, continuous and real-time outpatient management solutions for the monitoring of clinical information on an individual’s health.” suitcase

Bottom line, if you or anyone you know purchased CardioNet common stock between April 30, 2009 and June 30, 2009, inclusive, you may be eligible to join the suit as a plaintiff. 

Top Settlements

Will that be cash or credit? That’s what folks eligible for the Expedia settlement are asking themselves. It’s been all over the media, all week, and Abi blogged about it: Expedia has entered into a proposed $123.4 million settlement agreement in an effort to mitigate the damage caused by a class action alleging it shouldn’t have been bundling taxes and services fees onto the cost of vacations purchased through the site.

Basically, the suit alleged that Expedia, in charging its customers a “Tax Recovery Charge” and a “Service Fee,” during the period from January 10, 2001 through June 11, 2008 (i) committed deceptive or unfair practices in violation of the Washington Consumer Protection Act (“CPA”), and (ii) breached its contractual obligations from February 18, 2003 through December 11, 2006.

If approved, the settlement will provide for the distribution to Class Members of $123.4 million in cash payments and Expedia Settlement Credit that can be used for hotel reservations and “package” reservations that include hotel reservations.  

That’s a wrap—see you at the Bar.

Week Adjourned: 8.21.09

So much for the dog days of summer…it was a busy week.

Top Class Actions

[Pay]check is not in the mail? It seems every week a major brand is in the news for some alleged type of labor or wages violation. This week it’s UPS. The global courier company is facing a potential class action lawsuit over allups-legal-envegations that it withheld as much as $100 million in overtime wages from its account managers.

The suit alleges that UPS is in violation of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act and California’s wage and hour laws. The suit also alleges that UPS does not provide employees with mandatory meal periods and rest breaks and fails to keep adequate records of the hours the employees work. Who said management had it good? I would think that unpaid management overtime is a silent epidemic.

Vanishing home equity? Have you checked your home equity line of credit lately? Maybe you should. Michael Hickman of Illinois did, and got quite a nasty shock. Hickman alleges that he had Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 8.21.09”

Week Adjourned: 8.14.09

no-soliciting-sign-taggedTop Class Actions

Tagged! You’re it! Would have been an appropriate tag line (bad pun, I know) for this social networking site. Tagged.com is facing a potential class action lawsuit, filed by to ladies in California, over allegedly illegal harvesting of their email contacts. This resulted in those contacts receiving unsolicited, misleading ads via email: the messages appeared as if they were invitations to join the online community. Can you say “deceptive business practices” and possibly even trespassing?

According to news reports, Tagged.com harvested millions of email addresses from consumers who were unaware they had joined the site. The lawsuit claims that this is in violation of the federal Stored Communications Act and Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, among other laws. Even the Attorney General of New York—Andrew Cuomo—is going after them, citing invasion of privacy, engaging in a deceptive business practice and false advertising. I say Go Get’Em! One less source of unwanted advertising has to be a good thing.

Curious about what being a victim of Tagged.com feels like, check out Abi’s latest postContinue reading “Week Adjourned: 8.14.09”

Week Adjourned: 8.7.09

rosecoloredglassesWhat a week for securities class actions!

Top Class Actions

Too much of a positive outlook? Seems this telecom company had to take off the rose-colored glasses. Comtech got hit with a class action lawsuit this week, alleging that certain of the company’s officers and directors violated federal securities laws by producing overly positive statements regarding the company’s revenue, and future earnings prospects. Apparently the mobile communications business could be doing better. The class period for the suit is between September 17, 2008 and March 9, 2009, inclusive, and anyone who purchased common stock in the company during that time could be eligible.

Top Settlements

Wal-born is Wal-dead? If Wal-born isn’t protecting you from the cold or flu, then perhaps a free flu shot will. Walgreens has agreed to reimburse consumers who purchased Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 8.7.09”

Week Adjourned: 7.31.09

 

 

orwells-paperback-1984Another busy week…

 

Top Class Actions

“A startling view of life in…2009?” If only the Amazon Kindle had been around when I went to school! A 17-year old has filed a lawsuit against Amazon claiming the company rendered his homework useless when it went into this Kindle and deleted the digital version of George Orwell’s 1984 (gotta love the irony there).

 

Justin D. Gawronski , the 17-year old, alleges that Amazon never indicated to its customers that it had the ability to remotely delete content from Kindles and iPhones. The suit further alleges that this information is relevant to customers when making a decision about whether or not to purchase a Kindle. If this all sounds very familiar—well, that’s because it is. Amazon was hit with a similar class action 2 weeks ago when it originally deleted Orwell’s classics, alleging trespass.

 

Apparently Gawronski’s notes for his homework assignment on 1984 were not only stored in the Kindle, they were linked to specific passages in the book. When the book was deleted his notes became worthless. Uhmm. I wonder if this precedent could be applied to income tax documents…

 

“Wiiilllllmmmaa…!!!!” No, it wasn’t Fred Flintstone calling, but regardless, seems Hartford Insurance may not have heeded the call when policy holders’ filed claims after Hurricane Wilma. Hartford is being sued for not reimbursing its policy holders who made claims as a result of damage caused by the hurricane—unless those customers actually replaced the damaged item(s).  Continue reading “Week Adjourned: 7.31.09”