San Francisco Injury Lawyer Blog

According to the Associated Press, a total of 89 class action lawsuits have been filed against Toyota nationwide as of Monday, which could result in 3billion in payouts (if each individual receives around $500). Speaking of Class Action Lawsuits, have you ever received a notice in the mail from the courts that you are a member of a class action lawsuit and wondered what the heck it means? Then, not knowing what was the best thing to do or what you really could gain or lose from taking action, thrown the notice in the garbage? Here at the Brod Law Firm, we believe in the class action suit, as they give the everyday, hardworking citizens a chance to fight large corporations and private entities. So, with that said, we would like to give a brief tutorial about class actions for our readers, for the next time they might receive notice from the courts or have a potential class action claim of their own.
Let’s say you buy a car with faulty brakes and contact the company who makes the car, asking them what they will do to fix the problem. Then they delay or avoid taking responsibility for the issue, leaving you frustrated enough to hire an attorney. At that point your attorney will do some research and file a lawsuit on your behalf, and any other parties involved, and the company is put on notice. Then your attorney takes some depostions and asks the court to certify the case as a class action, meaning all people in the same circumstance get redress. Next, the court directs that notice be given to all parties having a similar claim during a particular time period. Those parties are then to be notified (usually by the defendants’ attorney) so that they may be informed and have input into the case. At that time, all parties, including the persons who bring the claim, are treated equally.
So basically, what a class action does is it allows cases that have merit to be filed that would otherwise be too expensive to litigate had they been filed individually. In the course of a class action case, several notices are mailed to class members, giving them a chance to “opt-out”. If they choose to “opt-out”, they have no further standing in the case. They can forget the matter or bring about file an action on their own behalf. If a party does not “opt-out,” they are considered to be a party to the case. From that point on you are bound by court’s decision and prohibited from taking any further action in the matter. The case could settle quickly or take years. Then, at the end, the parties will either reach an agreement, and the judge will approve the fairness and propriety of the settlement, or the case is tried and the judge renders a decision.
Anyone who feels they have a potential class action case should call the Brod Law Firm at 415-397-1130.

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Did you ever go shop for something at a store that guaranteed a rebate, say at a electronic or office supply store? A lot of consumers love rebates, but few know the exact meaning of rebate or how it works. "Rebate" means the return of a payment or a partial payment, which serves as a discount or reduction in price. They are also called promos, offers, deals, or rebates, calling on the customers to buy a product or service right now. Depending on the particular type of promotion, the customer receives a rebate check or a rebate card back by mail, also called MIRs or mail-in rebates. The rebate process is not a straight forward process. How it works is manufacturers, service providers, and retailers or E-tailers, who fund the rebates, hire third-party fulfillment companies; also known as fulfillment houses, fulfillment services providers, FSPs or rebated processors; to process the request for the customers who, sometimes, wait long periods for receipt of their rebates. So what motivates companies to offer rebates, anyway?

When companies offer a rebate in place of immediate discounts on a certain product, they increase the odds of that product being purchased. But often, filling out the receipts and putting together the collection of paperwork and proofs-of-purchase required to redeem them can be frustrating, especially if you are not a very organized, meticulous person who saves all your receipts. Also some buyers simply forget or can't be bothered to go through the hassle of trying to get $10 back or follow instructions correctly. Companies seem to bank on consumers not being organized, forgetful or careless. Added to that is the fact that, sometimes, even when a consumer properly follows instructions, the rebate never arrives, leaving the consumer feeling they have been scammed. When a consumer does not receive their rebate, it can translate into millions of extra revenue for retailers and their suppliers each year. And, sometimes, when the check does arrive, it gets thrown in the trash because it looks like junk mail. Bottom line: What rebates do is get consumers to focus on the discounted price of a product, then buy it at full price.

But many consumers, including state and federal authorities, such as the Federal Trade Commission, suspect that companies design the rules to keep redemption rates low. Manufacturers and retail stores make good use of this phenomenon, as they know most consumers won’t put up a fight or spend money to hire an attorney to help them get back a 50 dollar rebate that they never received-- it would cost 10 times that amount to pay the bill of even the cheapest of attorneys. When a company offers a rebate and then does not follow through, that is what we call "rebate fraud". Here at the Brod Law Firm, we are ready to help victims of fraudulent business practices recover what is owed to them. Additionally, we have listed some ways to avoid being a victim of rebate fraud:
• Follow the instructions on the rebate form religiously, enclosing all the required documentation.
• Make a copy of all paperwork to be mailed when applying for a rebate. It's the only record you have if something goes wrong. For larger rebates, send them in by certified mail, or get a delivery confirmation so you can verify the form was sent when you say it was.
• Contact the company if the rebate doesn't arrive within the time promised. Sometimes you can resolve a problem with one phone call.
• If the rebate never arrives or arrives late, file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission, your state attorney general or the local Better Business Bureau.
• If all else fails, set up your own Web site or post on someone else's blog to draw attention to the issue. This puts pressure on the companies to follow through. No company wants bad press.
• Lastly, only buy things you can afford without the rebate.

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Last week Mayor Gavin Newsom submitted a new piece of legislation to the Board of Supervisors: a citywide ban on sitting or lying on public sidewalks, including in front of your house. He introduced the legislation in response to the harassment of pedestrians and merchants by street persons, especially the harassing that takes place in the Haight on a daily basis. Similar ordinances are in effect in other cities, including Santa Cruz, Seattle, Wash., and Austin, Texas. The legislation consists of the following:
• No sitting or lying on sidewalks from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily
• Dogs cannot be more than 2 feet away from owner when stationary
• Offenders must be warned first
• Upon first conviction, fines of $50 to $100 or community service
• Upon second violation, 10 days in jail or a fine of $300 to 500 or both.
• Third and subsequent violations would be subject up to $500 fine and 30 days in jail
• Areas could include most commercial districts
• Restrictions from placing or leaving an object on a side walk” unless the object is in hand or with two feet of the person’s nearest foot
Added last minute to the legislation was a provision requiring the Police Department to report on its enforcement of the law to both the board and the mayor within a year of its implementation.

Some might say that the homeless are being used as political scapegoats and that this is an effort to begin criminalizing homelessness. And some may say that it will cost taxpayers millions of dollars to defend before it overturned like the one in Portland or that it could be a great success like similar programs in Seattle, Santa Cruz, and Austin. Some might say what a joke it is to give homeless people a citation they can’t pay or send them to jail as punishment. Would a cold, hungry person consider going to jail a punishment or a relief? If you think about it, under this sit/lie law, jail would simply become a place where a homeless person can receive free shelter and food (without needing to make appointment!). Jail would become like another branch of social services, and the police would become like social workers, taxing clients from the streets to shelter, then back to the streets. Brilliant! Here at the Brod Law Firm we believe homelessness is, essentially, a national issue, not just a state or city issue, and, despite the mayor’s efforts to fix the problem, there really is no easy fix.

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Last week a lawsuit filed by the Bologna family, the family whose father and two sons were fatally shot in 2008, against the city of San Francisco was thrown out. The presiding judge, Charlotte Woolard, ruled that the surviving members of the Bologna family can’t sue the city for allegedly harboring accused murderer Edwin Ramos from federal immigration authorities under federal immigration laws. In her ruling she stated: “In California and in their jurisdictions, it is well established that public entities generally are not liable for failing to protect individuals against crime.” Unlike injury cases where public entities and local jurisdiction can be held liable for injuries suffered at those locations, criminal cases do not follow the same rule. The lawsuit also claimed that that Ramos, an alleged illegal immigrant, had been previously arrested multiple times for violence and drug offenses, and the city failed to notify immigration enforcement. It is interesting to note that the Bologna family had also filed suit in federal court in 2008, and that that suit was also dismissed last year after a U.S. district judge reached the same conclusion. The crime and the criminal’s immigration status are two separate issues (issues that are too complex for the purposes of this blog), the former having no bearing on the latter.

Here at the Brod law firm, complex and tragic cases like this always leave us pondering the nature of justice, really. After all the lawsuits are filed, who is the last person to blame? Of course the person with the gun is the one responsible, but often the families of victims, such as this case shows, believe more than one person be held responsible--which is completely understandable-- in the face of the facts. It is hard to fathom the depth of grief any family feels after such a monstrous crime. Obviously, the family in this case has to come to terms with the result of the lawsuit; but, more importantly, they must come to terms with the deaths of their family members. We have seen our own clients face similar challenges during wrongful death lawsuits. Clients sometimes alienate themselves behind a lawsuit, thereby making it harder to accept and deal with their loss. It is an arduous task coming to terms with death of a loved one; it requires a courageous act of allowing the full measure of grief to penetrate one’s faculties and then by adjusting one’s life accordingly. Let’s be clear, in no way do we claim to be experts on the subject of grieving. Consequently, we always recommend victims’ families to seek out the appropriate form of grief counseling.

Posted by Gregory J. Brod | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Personal Injury

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