HERE ARE SOME PENDING OR RECENT CASES

• United Law Group is being sued for illegal practices in connection with its loan modification services.  United Law Group has appealed a court ruling and the case is on hold until a ruling is expected around July 2010.  Read the Complaint. 
• Associated Tax Relief of Los Angeles is being sued for illegal practices in connection with its tax debt negotiations services.  Read the Complaint.
• Evergreen Royalle Motel is being sued for forcing tenants in California to move out illegally every 28 days.  The Court has certified a class and further information will be posted by May 2010.  Read the Complaint

• Storage USA and Extra Space Storage are being sued for illegally selling tenants' property in California.  The case is set to go to trial in Fall 2010.  Read the Complaint

• American Laser Centers is being sued in California for illegally conducting unsupervised laser skin treatments and refusing to give refunds for unused services.  The Court has certified a class and further information will be posted in July 2010. 
• Verizon is being sued across the United States for falsely advertising consumers will get up to a certain download speed on DSL modems, even when it is not possible for them to get that speed.

• UnitedHealth Group is being sued for allowing identity theft to be committed on 1,000+ of its insurance customers in California.  UnitedHealth Group will pay a monetary settlement.  See the separate webpage.

• HireRight, USIS, Intelius, General Information Services, Blackman Detective Services, Employers Choice Online,  and Corporate Screening Services are being sued in California for illegally providing employment screening reports on job applicants.  The law carries a $10,000 penalty per violation.
• Overtime, minimum wage, meal and rest period violations by companies big and small are still all too common. We have pending lawsuits against Tuesday Morning Inc., 3M Company, Citibank, The Vitamin Shoppe, Eye Exam of California, Target Optical, and General Nutrition Corporation.

• Do you live in an apartment where you charged utility charges based on a percentage of the bill for the entire complex? This is called the RUBS method and it rubs us wrong and may be illegal.  Lawsuits are pending against AIMCO, BRE and United Dominion, three of the nation's largest apartment owners for overcharging tenants for utility charges.

• We have sued apartment complexes and credit bureaus like First Advantage Saferent and U. D. Registry for providing illegal credit reports on tenants.  Anyone whose application to rent an apartment in California was denied Essex Properties, Prometheus Management, CTL Management, FPI Management, Far West Management, Irvine Company, Lyon Apartments, Oakwood Apartments, VPM Management, Progress Management, Shea Properties, Fairfield Properties, or others should contact this office. 

• First Advantage Corporation illegally provided thousands of employment screening reports to California employers between Fall 2003 and March 2005. If you were the subject of one of these reports, you may be entitled to receive a $10,000 penalty. If you applied for a job in California between Fall 2003 and March 2005, ask your employer to give you a copy of the report or at least the name and address of the reporting agency. If it is First Advantage Corporation, contact this office to investigate your case.

• Experian has been sued for credit reporting violations. Crooked collection agencies are being allowed to access your personal information and place unjustified black marks on your credit reports. Experian fails to take adequate measure to prevent this. Meanwhile, your personal information (everything an identity thief needs to know) is sold indiscriminately from company to company.

• Ongoing litigation against companies that provide financing for virtual terminals, website hosting or other Internet business opportunity scams.  Typically the vendor makes fraudulent promises and convinces the consumer to purchase some kind of license and/or software to operate a business over the Internet. The fee for this license is "financed" through companies like Leasecomm, Axin Financial Services, A-1 Leasing, or Duvera Billing Services and companies like I-Payment or E-Commerce Exchange are also involved, all of whom then deny any responsibility for the fraud. The original vendor then often disappears.

• Predatory lenders charging nearly 100 percent interest on “auto pawn” loans have been targeted.Offenders include City Loan in Long Beach and Growth Resources Group.

• We sued Internet Matrix sites like EZ Expo and their payment processers which aid and abet them. The Matrix sites are generally defunct but cash settlements were made by PaySystems, Pay Request, Digital River and Paypal. For further information regarding the Matrix scams see www.matrixwatch.org.

• Do you have an equipment lease such as for a photocopier or office furniture? Does the lessor pay the local property tax on the equipment and require you to reimburse it? It may also be improperly charging you a sales tax on the property tax. GE Capital was sued by this office for overcharging lessees for the sales tax and has agreed to a class settlement.

• Consumer fraud actions against Bank of America and Mercedes Benz Credit concerning legality of "lease acquisition fees." If you have leased a vehicle from any dealership and paid an "acquisition fee," contact this office.

• This office prosecuted lawsuits against predatory home lenders like Ameriquest, Fremont Investment and Loan, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo.  Most of these companies are now defunct.  We are also investigating claims against mortgage brokers for falsely stating the borrower's income, a practice known as stated income fraud. If you lose your home in foreclosure or suffer other damages, you may be able to receive monetary compensation from the mortgage broker.

• Class action against Verizon Wireless and Asurion for deceptive practices in the sales of cellular phone replacement policies.

• Ongoing litigation against credit card processing services like Cardservice International, E-Commerce Exchange or National Bank of the Redwoods which charge "termination fees." If you are a small business and were charged a "termination fee," contact this office. A substantial settlement against Cardservice was obtained in 2004.