Class Action Archive

Sex Offenders Have a Right to be on Social Media! (so says Indiana)

January 30th, 2013. By AbiK

Newsflash: An Indiana court has ruled that it’s unconstitutional to ban sex offenders from using social media sites (like Facebook).

Question: Don’t a lot of kids use social media sites (like Facebook)?

Yes, upon being hit with a civil rights class action lawsuit—filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana on behalf of sex offenders—the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago overturned a decision made last June that upheld an Indiana law barring most registered sex offenders from using social networking websites.

The law had been in place since 2008—and, according to a press release issued by the ACLU-IN, Indiana already has a law that prohibits inappropriate communication with children, which in theory would cover social media.

The ACLU of Indiana had argued that the ban was so broad that it prevented someone who might have been convicted of an offense years ago from engaging in even innocent conversations on social media channels. This meant that a sex offender could not only not engage in conversation on Facebook, but also could not post a resume on LinkedIn, or as Ken Falk, legal director for the ACLU-IN was quoted as pointing out, “It would even bar someone who was convicted 40 years ago from participating in a Twitter feed with the pope.”

Now, given the amount of press on alleged predatory behavior within the church over the past few years, I’m not sure Mr. Falk used the best social media example—go ahead and cock your head to the side and raise an eyebrow as you ponder that one for a minute—go ahead, I’ll wait for you.

Now admittedly, I haven’t studied recidivism among sex offenders, but I do ascribe to the “leopards don’t change their spots” view of life—for the most part. Here, however, are some stats from the Bureau of Justice Statistics on sex offender recidivism for sex offenders who were released from prison in 1994:

Presents, for the first time, data on the rearrest, reconviction, and reimprisonment of 9,691 male sex offenders, including 4,295 child molesters, who were tracked for 3 years after their release from prisons in 15 States in 1994. The 9,691 are two-thirds of all the male sex offenders released from prisons in the United States in 1994. The study represents the largest followup ever conducted of convicted sex offenders following discharge from prison and provides the most comprehensive assessment of their behavior after release.

Highlights:

• Within 3 years following their release, 5.3% of sex offenders (men who had committed rape or sexual assault) were rearrested for another sex crime.
• On average the 9,691 sex offenders served 3 1/2 years of their 8-year sentence.
• Compared to non-sex offenders released from State prisons, released sex offenders were 4 times more likely to be rearrested for a sex crime.
• The 9,691 released sex offenders included 4,295 men who were in prison for child molesting.

Something else I know is that putting a kid in a candy store is a surefire way to watch a full-blown sugar rush play out. Personal views or hypotheses aside, Mark Schaefer of Schaefer Marketing Solutions points out on his “Grow” blog,

According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, there are approximately 750,000 registered sex offenders in the United States, a number that has soared 23 percent in five years, in part due to web-based predatory behavior.

Hmm. You thinking what I’m thinking? That maybe, just maybe, there’s a lot of predatory targeting going on online, what with numbers like those?

Well, for now at least, the decision is being reviewed by Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller—he’ll assess the state’s options regarding the ruling. Let’s hope his assessment includes the recollection of why the sex offender social media laws was put into place in the first place: to protect our kids.

More to come on this one…

 

 

Tags: ACLU, Greg Zoeller, Indiana, Online Predator, Recidivism, Sex Offender Registry, Sex Offenders, Social Media
Posted in Class Action, Emerging Issues, Human/Civil Rights | 13 Comments »

Coming To A Theater Near You: False Advertising?

January 28th, 2013. By AbiK

Beauty product class action lawsuits have been all over the news lately—three of the most recent are the Clinique Anti-Aging claims class action, the Avon ANEW product claim class action and the Rimmel Lash Accelerator Mascara class action lawsuit. All three lawsuits take aim at marketing claims that allegedly fail to deliver (aka, false advertising).

But beyond the consumer fraud—the price we all pay for promises not kept—is the price paid by women who are coaxed into believing that the advertising images are a) attainable and b) the only acceptable definition of ‘beauty’.

There’s a new movement afoot though that seeks to change that—in the form of an upcoming documentary aptly titled “False Advertising”. The beauty of it (no pun) is that is was the brainchild of three recent college graduates—all women—rather than some consumer watchdog group.

One of the women, Jennifer Bowker, was a sociology major and had written her senior thesis on the media and how it affects women’s body image and self-esteem. After graduation, Bowker joined forces with Avery Archie and Michelle Costales and together they produced “False Advertising”.

According to their Facebook page,

We made this documentary to help women start thinking critically about the media and how they define what is considered “beautiful.” It is detrimental to women, of all ages, when they internalize this ideal and strive to become it. After watching this, our hope is that women will view the media in a different light and see it for what it really is: False Advertising.

Kudos to these young women—just starting out in their careers—for taking a stance against dishonesty in beauty marketing. We applaud what they’re doing and wish them much success with the release of “False Advertising”.

 

Tags: Avon, Class Action Lawsuit, Clinique, Consumer Fraud, Estee Lauder, false advertising
Posted in Class Action, Consumer Fraud, Emerging Issues | 1 Comment »

Forget Oprah, We Had Lance Armstrong’s Number Years Ago!

January 19th, 2013. By AbiK

Gotta say…Lance, Lance, we knew you when, big guy…

When you still thought you had a prayer in you-know-what of beating this whole thing. But we knew you…didn’t.

See, our readers know that if you want to know if something, or someone, is a scam, you come here first.

Not that we take pleasure in having a few back slaps and high-fives by the water cooler at the expense of someone’s demise. Well, actually, in this case we do (though we don’t, actually, have a water cooler).

While many out there were still trying to cut Lance some slack, we knew his ride was pretty much over. And we knew he hadn’t been getting that ‘peak performance’ from a freakin’ bottle of FRS Energy Drink. C’mon Lance…could it have been the performance enhancing drugs? Oh right—Oprah already coaxed that one out of you.

As LawyersandSettlements.com’s senior legal correspondent Jane Mundy—who first reported on the FRS Energy Drink false advertising allegations in September 2010—said at the time:

“It’s hard to believe that Lance Armstrong, FRS poster boy, would be associated with any false advertising. Or is it?”

Uh, no Jane, apparently it’s not!

Jane went on to share with one of Lance’s hoodwinked supporters that not only was Lance lying through his teeth about any performance benefits coming from 19g of sugar, but he was also getting paid for it—hello disclosure—not only as an FRS spokesperson, but also as a member of the FRS board of directors! Make that check out to “Lance Armstrong” please…

Post-script, FRS dropped Lance. Regardless of whatever claims the makers of FRS may make, they’re no fools: bye-bye Lance.

Oh, and speaking of FRS, they’ve got another little post-script—an FRS false advertising class action lawsuit that’s recently been filed in the Los Angeles Superior Court (12/5/12). Only now, as Bevnet reports, it’s FRS Healthy Slim that’s in the cross-hairs. Guess someone wasn’t magically dropping those pounds.

Well, Lance may have been living strong and feeding us all some dope about his performance. But we never bought it.

Tags: Consumer Fraud, false advertising, FRS Energy Drink, Lance Armstrong
Posted in Celebrity, Class Action, Consumer Fraud, Emerging Issues | 2 Comments »

Must See: Stephen Colbert Explains Vitamin Water Lawsuit!

January 18th, 2013. By AbiK

 

Remember the Coca-Cola Vitamin Water class action lawsuit? Well, it’s still out there—and there was even a copycat class action filed in Canada. But no one can quite shed light on the allegations involved in the Vitamin Water lawsuits quite the way Stephen Colbert can—so if you missed his show on Monday (1/14/13), check out the video above.

For an additional laugh, here’s what’s on Coke’s website—on their “Coca-Cola Journey” section—in response to the initial class action filing. Hard to believe this was written by someone old enough to have working papers. Read on—and no, it’s not a joke—this is really published on the Coke website:

The glacéau vitaminwater lawsuit is a ridiculous and ludicrous lawsuit. glacéau vitaminwater is a great tasting, hydrating beverage with essential vitamins and water, with labels showing calorie content.

Filing a lawsuit is an opportunistic PR stunt. This is not about protecting the public interest. This is about grandstanding at a time when CSPI is receiving very little attention. There is no surprise that one week before the inauguration of the U.S. President, with the flurry of activity in Washington, D.C., that CSPI has chosen today to try to bring attention to themselves.

We don’t need a “healthful” alternative to sodas. All our beverages, including sparkling and diets, can be part of healthful diet. Furthermore, consumers today are aware and are looking for more from their beverages than just hydration. Products like glacéau vitaminwater provide a great tasting choice for hydration that also helps contribute to daily needs for some essential nutrients.

Consumers can readily see the nutrition facts panels on every bottle of glacéau vitaminwater, which show what’s in our product and what’s not. The success of glacéau vitaminwater is due in large part to consumers looking for a product like this to help support their healthy, active and on-the-go lifestyle.

Put simply, glacéau vitaminwater is a great complement to our often less-than-perfect diet with each of the different glacéau vitaminwater varieties providing a convenient, great-tasting way to get more of some of the vitamins and hydration we all need each day.

No joke folks.

 

Tags: Class Action Lawsuit, Coca-Cola, Coke, Consumer Fraud, false advertising, Glaceau, Stephen Colbert, Vitamin Water, VitaminWater
Posted in Class Action, Consumer Fraud, Emerging Issues, lawsuits | 2 Comments »

Southwest Learns Not to Screw a Lawyer out of a Drink (ever) & Gets a Hefty Bar Tab

December 28th, 2012. By AbiK

Important tip: If you’re going to screw someone out of a drink, make sure he’s not a lawyer.

Southwest Airlines learned that the hard way last week when a judge approved the settlement for the recent class action lawsuit in which Southwest screwed its Business Select ticket purchasers out of some drinks.

Apparently, the way things were (where’s Barbra Streisand when you need her?) at Southwest, if a passenger purchased tickets through their premium Business Select program, the passenger would receive drink vouchers—valued at $5 each and with no expiration date—that they could then use in-flight.

Well, all fine and dandy until the fateful date of August 1, 2010. That’s when Southwest changed the rules of the game and decided that those drink vouchers could only be used on the day of travel that was printed on the ticket. Hmm…thinking of stockpiling vouchers for that red-eye flight? Not anymore you aren’t (and you may want to hold off on popping the Ambien…)

So someone raised an eyebrow at the switcheroo in policy and that someone was an attorney: Adam Levitt (of Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz in Chicago).

Levitt, clearly being an ‘e pluribus unum’ kind of guy, figured he wasn’t the only one affected by the disappearing drinks act and, therefore, from the many affected one class was formed and a Southwest Airlines drink voucher class action lawsuit was filed (November 16, 2011). Levitt, it goes without saying, was the initial plaintiff in the case.

According to Business Insider, the breach of contract lawsuit settlement affects those Southwest Airlines passengers who purchased tickets prior to August 1, 2012 through the Business Select program and received drink vouchers but did not redeem them–note, the settlement does not affect passengers who earned drink vouchers via the frequent flier program Rapid Rewards.

Further, BI reports that the drink voucher settlement entitles eligible fliers to new drink vouchers—even if they no longer have the original unused vouchers—for each voucher the passenger claims they had earned but not redeemed. The settlement drink vouchers will be good for one year.

Drink voucher lawsuit class members will reportedly be notified of the settlement and how to submit a claim over the next few weeks.

Chicago attorney Joseph Siprut, who represented the ‘took the drink right out of my hands’ victims, is quoted in BI as saying, “This settlement is a grand-slam result for the class, as consumers are recovering 100 cents on the dollar.” (not a shabby recovery, btw).

It’s estimated the Southwest drink voucher settlement could cost the airline in the area of $29 million, given that there are potentially 5.8 million fliers who are part of the class, having purchased and flown Southwest via the Business Select program between October 2007 and August 2010.

 

Tags: Attorney Adam Levitt, Class Action Lawsuit, Drink Voucher Lawsuit, Joseph Siprut, Settlement, Southwest Airlines, Southwest Business Select
Posted in Airlines, Class Action, Emerging Issues, lawsuits, Settlement | 9 Comments »