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GSA is representing families of teenagers who have become addicted to nicotine through use of JUUL vaping devices.

JUULing is the act of using a JUUL vaping device, an item that is rechargeable and has a similar appearance to that of a USB drive, which is filled with a JUUL pod, a nicotine solution. The widespread use of vaping among teens has been covered by a variety of news outlets such as the New York Times and Mashable. As the complaint discusses, JUUL has geared much of its advertising towards teens using bright colors and attractive models, which selling a product that is reported to have a higher dose of nicotine than tradition cigarettes. Furthermore, the product draws in young users by coming in flavors such as Mango and Creme Brulee.

Image result for juul ads

 Since its release, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention has reported a steady increase in the numbers of high school students JUULing.  GSA’s investigation has revealed that there are countless high school and even middle school students who cannot stop JUULIng and have become addicted to nicotine and put themselves at risk adverse changes to their brain chemistry. GSA believes JUUL is responsible for this phenomenon. On July 24, Massachusetts’ Attorney General, Maura Healey, announced that the state would begin an investigation on the company due to determine its practices of targeting minors and enticing them to use their device. In the press conference she stated, “they’re engaged in an effort to get kids addicted, to get kids hooked, so that they’ll have customers for the rest of their lives.”

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Today, GSA filed a Complaint against JUUL Labs and PAX Labs regarding the negligent sale and marketing of the JUUL e-cigarette on behalf of D.P. and his mother, L.P.. D.P. is a high school freshman who is skilled at carpentry, a talented jazz musician, and an active member of his school’s track team. When D.P. entered his specialized high school, he was introduced to JUULing, the use of JUUL e-cigarettes, by his peers. Within a few weeks, D.P. became addicted to nicotine and JUULing. Through their youth-geared marketing tactics and growing popularity, JUUL has caught the attention of students throughout the country without adequately detailing the dangers of the device and the fact that JUULing has stronger narcotic effects than smoking a cigarette due to JUUL’s concentrated nicotine formulation. At just 15-years-old, D.P. now suffers the adverse affects of a nicotine addiction due to the irresponsible behavior of JUUL.

 

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Great article in the New York Times this morning from Gretchen Morgenson regarding Wells Fargo forcing unwanted auto insurance on borrowers. Giskan Solotaroff & Anderson is currently investigating this issue. If you are one of the “more than 800,000 people who took out car loans from Wells Fargo [and] were charged for auto insurance they did not need,” please contact us immediately!

 

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We have the chance to amend our complaint and add parties to this proceeding. If you have experienced problems with your Nissan’s dashboard when exposed to direct sunlight, contact us immediately and add your name to the class.

Owners of Nissan vehicles describe a troubling problem in this case: their dashboards melt, crack, become highly reflective, and/or ooze noxious chemical smells when exposed to direct sunlight. This is dangerous for the owner of the vehicle and everyone on the road, and replacement of the dashboard is costly. The class action seeks to compel Nissan to warn drivers about the known defect and to bear the expense of replacing dashboards that should never have been placed in the stream of commerce in the first place. If your Nissan’s dashboard has suffered similar damage from the sun, please contact us immediately!

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GSA’s class action against Uber, filed May 24, 2017, was reported in the New York Post. For full article, click here.

“Passengers are incurring hidden charges with Uber’s “upfront” pricing model — resulting in a $7.4 million windfall per month to the app-ride company from New York City trips alone, according to a new class action lawsuit.

Uber launched its upfront fares last summer, promising a “no math and no surprises” system that would calculate the actual cost of a trip before customers booked a ride.

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The comments say it all. There are so many complaints about this company, and we need class members! Check out these posts documenting clear-cut scamming of Banker’s Life Agents and contact us if this has happened to you!

Banker’s Life Glassdoor Reviews: “Horrible god awful company!”

USAComplaints.com: Bankers Life & Casualty Lied to, ripped off and unhappy

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Here’s an excerpt from the courts recent Order denying in part motion to dismiss our class action lawsuit against Banker’s Life for former agent chargebacks.

“Joseph Woerner was an insurance agent for Bankers Life and Casualty Company. He alleges that his hiring by Bankers Life was part of a pyramid scheme in which Bankers Life hires more agents than it needs in order to exact the fees it charges new agents, and to claw back sales commissions under false pretenses when surplus agents inevitably leave the company. Woerner alleges that Bankers Life’s conduct constitutes: a violation of his agency contract (Count I); a violation of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing under Illinois law (Count II); and a violation of the Illinois Consumer Fraud Act (Count III). R. 1-1. Bankers Life has moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). R. 16. For the following reasons, that motion is denied in part and granted in part.

[…]

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In April 2016, a former Bankers Life insurance agent commenced an action against Bankers Life for breach of the agent agreement on behalf of all terminated Bankers Life agents who have been subject to commission charge-backs for so-called policy rewrites.

As alleged in the Complaint it is common company practice at Bankers Life for senior agents to “‘re-write’ policies [sold] by former agents in order to justify commission chargebacks and to reassign the policy [renewal] commission stream from the [former agent] to a current senior agent.” However, “the ‘re-writing’ of the policies is pretextual, with Bankers Life typically making nothing more than an immaterial change, such as altering the policy name.” Bankers Life then seeks repayment of commissions from the former agent based on these “re-writes,” often using debt collectors and reporting the unpaid commissions to the Vector One data base, while a current agent receives the commission for the “rewritten” policy.

For more information, see our filed Complaint.pdf

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On December 17th, GSAS and Beranbaum Menken LLP filed a class-action lawsuit against the City of New York and its Department of Correction for illegally strip and/or body cavity searching visitors to City jails.  Randomly strip searching visitors to City jails is illegal and a violation of the DOC’s directives.  The lawsuit alleges that the City is systematically performing strip searches without individualized reasonable suspicion that the visitor is concealing contraband.
The case is A.R., et al. v. City of New York, et al., 15 Civ. 9224, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.