Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D. Or.) has done his part to get to the bottom of the sad story of Oregon National Guard soldiers exposed to toxic chemicals at the KBR Qarmat Ali facility. Rep. Blumenauer previously asked the Secretary of Defense to provide information about the agreements–both for KBR and… Continue Reading →
The Government Accounting Office released its report today, GAO Report For Profit Colleges (pdf), highlighting a number of abuses by for-profit trade schools. The GAO engaged in undercover testing to ferret out the fraud and abuse in for-profit admissions and lending. Pretty scary stuff. The GAO Report notes that… Continue Reading →
Mike Doyle and I were in court this morning fighting off more KBR motions. The KBR defendants asked Judge Papak to prohibit us from taking discovery because–according to KBR–their motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction required no discovery. They also asked Judge Papak to prohibit discovery until… Continue Reading →
This is an update on our case, Bixby v. KBR, U.S. District Court Case No. CV 09-632-PK (D. Or.). In the case, soldiers serving in the Oregon National Guard claim that KBR defendants are responsible for their exposures to hexavalent chromium, a cancer-causing toxic chemical. The soldiers claim that KBR… Continue Reading →
For those of us in the trenches representing consumers in class actions, it’s always nice to find good information resources in the law blog world. I’ve stopped by the Complex Litigator a few times. I only caught this post on a consumer class against Wells Fargo because… Continue Reading →
This is an update report for those following our Comcast late fee class action. In this certified class action, Oregon Comcast cable television subscribers claim that Comcast illegally assessed late fees for cable TV service. The class seeks damages. Here is the last update on the case. Go to… Continue Reading →
Peter Goodman of The New York Times does a nice job here of looking at the problem of for-profit trade schools. The story mentions our class action against Western Culinary Institute/Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Portland. And while it’s all exciting to see the… Continue Reading →
In Portland last week, Senator Wyden held a press conference to announce his support for expanding VA benefits for soldiers exposed to toxic chemicals in Iraq. This arguably sounds bland. It is not. Senator Wyden and Oregon National Guard Vets It’s important for a few reasons. Let’s talk first… Continue Reading →
Recently, Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Richard Baldwin signed this order (pdf) certifying an Oregon consumer fraud class action against Western Culinary Institute and Career Education Corp. It took us a while to get to an order. That’s not unusual in class action cases. There is a quiet feature… Continue Reading →
For those interested, here is an update on the Oregon late fee class action against Comcast. The short version is that with my co-counsel, Tim Quenelle, I filed a class action against Comcast for its illegal assessment of cable TV late fees in Oregon. We filed this case in July… Continue Reading →