An attorney whose practice focuses on helping defend complex class action lawsuits said the rise of class action objectors milking the litigation system for quick payoffs has become a thorn in the side of businesses and attorneys attempting to settle lawsuits.
Seeking to defend himself against accusations he and his associates have behaved as extortionists by allegedly using objections to class action settlements to wring six-figure payments from others seeking to close deals, attorney Christopher Bandas fired back, saying the lawyers pressing the action against him and his associates are the rogue agents, engaging in “dirty tricks to intimidate and ward off” all who “stand in the… way” of their million dollar paydays.
Two lawyers, described as “professional objectors” to class action settlements, will need to face a hearing and perhaps state disciplinary action, over their alleged attempt to secure a payoff, as a state appeals panel said they had essentially hidden behind a narrow interpretation of a court rule to deflect attempts to sanction them for taking “advantage of a situation described as ‘murky’ and with ‘unpredictable’ or ‘sporadic’ enforcement” to win potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time from other lawyers seeking to close the deal on their own million dollar paydays.
A management company that provides services to hospitals is alleged to have unlawfully collected employee's fingerprints for use in its employee punch clocks.
A Downers Grove-based company that operates Burger King restaurants in Chicago's suburbs has been accused in a class action lawsuit of allegedly unlawfully collecting and storing its employees' fingerprints for use with its punch clocks to track employees' hours worked.
Organizations providing workers comp insurance and employee health insurance for more than 200 Illinois local governments have joined the mass of lawsuits against drug makers, distributors and others associated with the spread of so-called opioid painkillers.
A state appeals panel has reversed a Cook County judge’s dismissal of a class action complaint accusing an LA Tan franchisee of violating an Illinois privacy law for the way it scanned and stored digital scans of customers’ fingerprints, saying the business’ disclosure of those fingerprints to a third-party vendor could be enough of a violation to sustain the lawsuit.
Fast food chain Wendy's is among the latest businesses operating in Illinois to be sued by workers for allegedly violating workers' rights under an Illinois biometrics privacy law by scanning employee fingerprints for use with its employee punch clock systems.
A federal judge has sided with objectors who want to undo a class action settlement involving a five-year-old Neiman Marcus data breach, saying the leading plaintiffs do not adequately represent the entire group.
Packaging maker Amcor Rigid Plastics USA is among the latest companies to be hit with a class action lawsuit alleging they violated an Illinois biometrics privacy law by improperly scanning their workers' fingerprints.
Attorneys for a group of Illinois municipalities are fighting an attempt to combine their lawsuit against opioid manufacturers and distributors with a mass of similar litigation already pending in Cleveland federal court.
A Texas-based law firm accused of improperly using proxy Illinois attorneys to covertly manage lawsuits in Illinois intended to allegedly essentially extort payments from other lawyers trying to close out class action settlements, has agreed to accept a court order barring them from practicing law in Illinois.
Saying the lawsuit raises legal questions that shouldn't be dealt with in state court, one of the country’s largest pharmaceutical distributors – and one that stands as a defendant in many of the lawsuits now pending in courts across the country over the so-called opioid epidemic – has asked a federal judge to prevent a group of Chicago suburban communities from suing an array of drug manufacturers and distributors in Cook County Circuit Court.
Three more Cook County communities are suing opioid makers and distributors in connection with the opioid epidemic. But unlike dozens of other Chicago-area towns that have already taken similar court action, the three towns are suing separately, rather than together, and have added medical societies as defendants.
A federal appeals panel will allow a group of Chicago lawyers to keep their potential $15 million to $18 million payday for their work in securing a $76 million settlement from a cruise line and others accused of using nonprofit surveys to mask telemarketing calls, as judges said the size of the fee award doesn’t necessarily mean it is too large.
Another group of Cook County communities have launched a lawsuit, which they want to stay in Cook County rather than federal court, against a number of opioid makers, distributors and doctors, alleging they pushed prescription opioids on the public despite knowing the drugs were dangerously addictive.
A little over five months since denying one of Chicago’s leading class action plaintiffs’ firms the chance to pursue racketeering charges against another group of lawyers accused of acting as “professional objectors” to extort payments, a Chicago federal judge said she will allow the Edelson P.C. firm to move ahead with one final remaining element of their lawsuit – an attempt to secure a court order restricting the ability of those lawyers to practice law in Illinois, and so limit their ability to collect on a $225,000 payday from Edelson.
Chicago lawyer Jay Edelson, known for pursuing digital privacy and technology class actions, is alleging the Johnson & Bell law firm is trying to throttle his right to speak publicly about a case involving both parties as adversaries, with a groundless SLAPP defamation lawsuit against his firm in Cook County court.
A lawsuit that claims Speedway gas stations didn’t follow state law in collecting employee fingerprints is back in state court, after a federal district court denied Speedway’s motion to dismiss - while at the same time agreeing that the plaintiff suffered no injury.
Ten Cook County suburbs have sued opioid makers in connection with what they allege is widespread drug abuse and overdoses from so-called opioid prescription painkillers. And in a bid to ensure their lawsuit doesn’t get shipped off to a Cleveland federal court to be consolidated with the bulk of the opioid litigation pending in U.S. courts, the plaintiffs have also tacked on as defendants three doctors they accused of operating a “pill mill.”
