Uber’s court
skirmishes with the taxi industry are small potatoes compared to the fight with
drivers.
Car-hire service Uber, which is embroiled in legal fights
across the country, won a significant victory in court this week against a gang
of taxi companies that want to drive it out of Connecticut. The ruling
certainly helps Uber legitimize its business model, but doesn’t resolve the
biggest legal question hanging over the company.
In the Connecticut ruling (see below), issued on Thursday, a
federal judge threw out the taxi companies’ case, which accused Uber of
unlawful tactics against taxi industry competitors and of deceiving consumers.
The complaint featured a
laundry list of legal claims, including racketeering, fraud, unfair competition
and trademark infringement.
Two CareFirst BlueCross
BlueShield customers have filed a proposed class action suit against the
Maryland health insurer after a cyberattack exposed about 1.1 million current
and former members' personal information.
The suit alleges that CareFirst,
the region's largest health insurer, failed to protect their data after the
company became aware of security weaknesses during an attempted hack last year.
The attackers, who left behind hidden back doors that let them later re-enter
undetected, gained access to names, birth dates, email addresses and insurance
identification numbers during a breach in June 2014 CareFirst officials said when they disclosed the hack in
May.
The damages arising from the incident exceed $5 million,
according to the lawsuit filed Aug. 6 in U.S. District Court, which accuses
CareFirst of negligence and failing to notify customers in a timely fashion.
The two plaintiffs include a Maryland resident who received the insurance
through her job with the state.
Nine banks have paid a total
of $9bn to investors in the US over claims they rigged foreign exchange
markets, and their lawyers hope to launch similar lawsuits in London
British
and European investors could now get a chance to open lawsuits against banks
accused of rigging financial markets, following a string of settlements in
cases in the US, lawyers believe.
Another
five major banks accused of foreign-exchange
rigging have
settled claims in a New York court with complainants, including pensions funds
and institutional investors.
They
join the four banks who settled earlier in the year, and the total payouts to
investors now amount to more than $2bn (£1.28bn).
The
settlement announced this week covers Barclays,
Goldman Sachs, RBS, HSBC and BNP Paribas. The investors are still pursuing
claims against Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, RBC Capital Markets, Société Générale,
Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley.
As
well as giving payments to the plaintiffs, the settling banks have also agreed
to co-operate with the claimants, which lawyers say has opened up a trove of
extra information which could be used in cases in the UK.
Almost a quarter of claims
filed were downgraded from a potential $42,000 payout to a maximum of $2,000.
Almost 400 people with
developmental disabilities who were expecting payouts of tens of thousands of
dollars from a legal settlement with the government will only receive a maximum
of $2,000, though they haven’t been informed and don’t have any recourse to
appeal, the Star has learned.
After suffering physical and sexual abuse at the Huronia Regional Centre,
former residents settled a class action lawsuit with the government for $35
million in 2013. More than 1,700 people made claims for a part of the
settlement, divided into the less serious section A, which have their claims
capped at $2,000, and the more severe section B, which are awarded up to
$42,000.
But according to the litigation guardians, appointed to
advise the disabled plaintiffs, 394 (almost ¼ of the 1,705 accepted claims)
have been reclassified from section B to section A, reducing their potential payout
by $40,000. And many of those who were reclassified are non-verbal and least
able to make their case.
“I don’t think it’s fair that people who cannot speak for
themselves should get only $2,000. I don’t think that’s right and I don’t think
they were fully supported,” saidMarie Slark, a
former Huronia resident and one of the representative plaintiffs on the class
action case.
LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. – Anyone who
bought Templeton Rye whiskey thinking it was Iowa whiskey – when it was
actually distilled in Indiana about a half-hour from Cincinnati – is entitled
to as much as $36 under the terms of a $2.5 million class action settlement.
A group of plaintiffs brought the suits against the
makers of Templeton after a journalist with The Daily Beast reported that
dozens of “craft” whiskey brands, including Templeton Rye, were actually distilled
by MGP in their Lawrenceburg factory.
Templeton’s labels had stated the product was “produced
and bottled by: Templeton Rye Spirits, LLC, Templeton, Iowa” and but made no
mention of the Indiana distillers. The whiskey is actually distilled and aged
for four years in Lawrenceburg before being shipped to Iowa.
“Though our relationship between Templeton Rye and our
Indiana-based distillery partner is described on our website, we recognize our
marketing efforts should have provided more clarity about our production
process,” Templeton Rye Spirits co-founder Keith Kerkhoff said in a statement
on the settlement.
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