Category: Class Action

The University of California system would pay $73 million under a proposed settlement reached in a class action lawsuit filed by seven women who accused their former gynecologist at UCLA of sexual abuse, the Los Angeles Times reports. The gynecologist, 67-year-old James Heaps, who is criminally charged with sexually abusing seven patients – not the same seven who are involved in the class action – is accused in the civil litigation of sexual assault and sexual misconduct between 1983 and 2019 when he was at the UCLA student health center as well as the UCLA Medical Center. …Read the rest »

California’s restaurants that have been financially battered by the coronavirus pandemic have filed government claims to recover more than $100 million in fees for liquor and health permits and tourism charges that they say were assessed even though their businesses were closed or only partially operating due to COVID-19 restrictions. …Read the rest »

As indoor dining still remains unavailable in many parts of California, it makes good sense to get dinner delivered or to go. But, as a consumer, you may want to think twice about using your credit or debit card at a restaurant because this is apparently a busy time for hackers as well. Restaurants are perfect targets for cyber attacks because of the sheer number of credit cards that go through their systems each day. Now, Dickey’s Barbecue Pit, which has a number of restaurants in Southern and Northern California has been targeted by cybercriminals in a data breach, leaving millions of customer credit cards exposed. …Read the rest »

The state’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA), which oversees workplace safety, has slapped Amazon with $1,870 in fines for coronavirus-related safety violations. The Los Angeles Times reports that over the course of several months beginning in May, investigators with the agency found that two Amazon warehouses in Southern California – one in Eastvale and one in Hawthorne – failed to mitigate workers’ potential exposure to the novel coronavirus because they failed to provide effective safety training to employees. …Read the rest »

Cincinnati Financial Corp. is facing a number of business interruption coverage lawsuits due to the coronavirus pandemic. According to Biz Journals, the insurer, like many others across the country, has been sued by companies that have purchased policies and have been diligently paying premiums over the years. They claim they suffered business losses when the pandemic led to forced business shutdowns. Insurance companies have argued that their policies cover physical damage to businesses and that COVID-19 has not resulted in physical damage. …Read the rest »

A court in Missouri has reached a momentous ruling pertaining to COVID-19 business interruption claims. According to a news report, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Bough for the Western District of Missouri ruled that business income loss due to the coronavirus might be covered under standard property and casualty policies, as long as the claimant can prove direct physical loss. …Read the rest »

Twenty lawsuits have been combined into a unified federal class action lawsuit against short-form video app TikTok over allegedly harvesting data from users who are mostly children and secretly sending that information to China. According to an NPR news report, dozens of minors through their parents are alleging that the video-sharing app collects information about their facial characteristics, locations and close contacts and quietly sends that data to servers in China. …Read the rest »

Hampshire House, the owner of several restaurants in Boston, including the famous Cheers bar featured in a TV show by the same name, is suing its insurance providers over denied business interruption claims it filed in response to the coronavirus pandemic shutdowns. According to The Boston Globe, the company has been navigating estimated losses in the millions of dollars. …Read the rest »

Walmart Inc. has been accused in a proposed class action lawsuit of violating California’s privacy law by failing to protect consumer data from an alleged hack. According to a Bloomberg news report, customers face significant injuries and damages such as having their data on the dark web as a result of a breach the complaint says occurred, the lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California states. …Read the rest »

Oaklandish, a popular California clothing brand known for its Oakland pride apparel, is suing its insurance provider for denying pandemic-related coverage. According to a report in The Mercury News, Oaklandish joins as one of the latest businesses to sue its insurance provider. Like many retailers statewide, Oaklandish was required under state laws to shut down during the mandated stay-at-home order, which took effect mid-March. …Read the rest »