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Public Justice (formerly Trial Lawyers for Public Justice) opened its doors 25 years ago to pursue an inspiring vision -- building the trial lawyers' public interest law firm. We have done that and more. Over the past quarter century, no public interest law firm in the country has been involved in a broader range of high-impact, cutting-edge litigation. So we've become Public Justice to pursue an expanded, inspiring vision -- building America's public interest law firm. Public Justice fights for justice through precedent-setting and socially significant individual and class action litigation designed to enhance consumer and victims' rights, environmental protection and safety, civil rights and civil liberties, workers' rights, America's civil justice system, and the protection of the poor and powerless. Our Access to Justice Campaign keeps the courthouse doors open to all by battling federal preemption of injury victims' rights, unfair mandatory arbitration, class action bans and abuse, unnecessary secrecy in the courts, attacks on the right to counsel and jury trial, and unconstitutional legislation.
Public Justice is the
principal project of the Public Justice Foundation, a non-profit
membership
organization.
We are supported by – and can
call on – a nationwide network of over 3,500 attorneys and others,
including trial lawyers, appellate lawyers, consumer advocates, constitutional
litigators, employment lawyers, environmental attorneys, civil rights lawyers,
class action specialists, law professors and law students. Public Justice
and the Public Justice Foundation are headquartered in Washington, D.C., and
have a West Coast Office in Oakland, California. Public Justice Prevails in Case Against Computer Giant
High Court in New Mexico Upholds “Fundamental” Access to Justice for
Consumers
The state’s high court
unanimously held in Fiser v. Dell that the company deprived its
customers of fair redress and relief by imposing a ban on group claims
and insisting on individual claims “when the cost of bringing a single
claim is greater than the damages alleged.” In Fiser, the
plaintiffs alleged that Dell misrepresented the amount of memory in its
computers and violated the state’s consumer protection laws. They each
claimed $10-$20 in damages for the misrepresentations. Trial Lawyer of the Year 2008 Finalists Named
Three legal teams that won justice for abused female prisoners in Michigan, residents exposed to hazardous pollution in West Virginia, and hundreds of people who had been molested by Catholic clergy in California have been named finalists for Public Justice Foundation’s 2008 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award. The teams, comprising 28 attorneys, will be honored at the Annual Gala and Awards Dinner on July 15 in Philadelphia, where the winner will be announced. Their cases were chosen from a field of 20 nominated extraordinary cases involving a range of issues, from fraudulent pricing practices by a major pharmaceutical and gender bias on Wall Street, to access for the disabled and the rights of Hurricane Katrina victims. Click here to see the 2008 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award Finalists. Public Justice to Bestow Access to Justice Award
A Birmingham lawyer who mounted a crusade against a system that favored corporate interests over the victims of hazardous chemical exposure has been named winner of Public Justice Foundation’s Access to Justice Award.
Robert Palmer and his Alabama Legal Reform Foundation tirelessly fought to change Alabama’s statute of limitations on toxic tort complaints – a limit that required victims to file a complaint within two years of their last exposure to the offending chemical, meaning that those who did not have any symptoms or diagnosis until after two years had passed were out of luck.
In two editorials, the New York Times urged justice for Jack Cline, one of Palmer’s clients, who sued the makers and suppliers of benzene, a carcinogenic chemical that he was exposed to for years on the job. Cline had acute myelogenous leukemia, which is linked to benzene exposure, but his case was thrown out of court because he was not diagnosed with the disease until well after the two-year statute of limitations had expired. FULL STORY
National Media Highlight Public Justice Case in Reports About Egregious Treatment of Immigration Detainees Castaneda Case Featured on CBS's "60 Minutes" and in Sunday Edition of The Washington Post
In exposés of the government’s atrocious and sometimes deadly medical neglect of immigration detainees, the May 11 editions of both CBS’s “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post featured the case of Francisco Castaneda of California, who died in February, a year after his penis was amputated in an attempt to stop a cancer that detention officials had refused to treat. Watch the "60 Minutes" segment "Detention in America." Read the Washington Post articles from their Series: "Careless Detention:"
"Francisco Castaneda's Story" includes links to Castaneda's "Justice and the Role of Class Actions" Video Now Available
On March 28, 2008, scholars, practitioners and law students explored class
actions and the issues that swirl around this controversial and rapidly changing
area of the law. ACS, Public Justice and Cardozo Law School co-sponsored the
day-long conference at Cardozo Law School. Second Former Coach Sues Florida School for Retaliation Florida Gulf Coast University Accused of Violating Federal Law, Retaliating Against Female Coaches
A second female former coach at Florida Gulf Coast University has joined a federal retaliation lawsuit filed against the school by Public Justice, the national public interest law firm. Holly Vaughn, who designed the FGCU women’s golf program and built it into Division II tournament-winner, charges that, like former head volleyball coach Jaye Flood, she was subjected to threats and intimidation from school officials because she spoke out about gender inequities in the university’s athletic program. “The students I coached—my players—deserve so much better than they are getting and my fight is, foremost, for them,” said Holly Vaughn. “I joined this lawsuit to stand up for what’s right and fair for the student-athletes who put their hard work and good faith into FGCU’s athletic program. It’s not too much to ask that the university treat its female coaches and student-athletes with the respect they deserve.” FULL STORY Public Justice Files Two Lawsuits Over CSI Toys Containing Asbestos
Alarmed that CBS Broadcasting, Inc. and Planet Toys, Inc. have refused to take appropriate action, Public Justice has filed state and federal lawsuits to force the companies to protect children and their families from further exposure to asbestos contained in toy science kits made by Planet Toys and licensed by CBS. The toy kits are based on the popular "CSI" television drama series, and tests of the kits' fingerprinting powder found tremolite, one of the most deadly forms of asbestos. Public Justice's federal complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that CBS and Planet Toys were negligent in their quality control measures and that they made consumers believe the toys were appropriate playthings for children when, in fact, the toys contained a hazardous and potentially lethal carcinogen. Because the toys were sold nationwide, the lawsuit is brought on behalf of a nationwide class of consumers who purchased or acquired the toys. FULL STORY Court Denies Federal Officials' Attempt to Evade Responsibility for Medical Neglect that Led to Immigrant's Penile Amputation and Death
A federal court late Tuesday issued a blistering rebuke of federal officials’ motion to dismiss part of a lawsuit Public Justice filed on behalf of a Salvadoran immigrant whose penis was amputated and who eventually died as the result of medical neglect suffered while in detention. Ruling on federal public health officials’ argument that Francisco Castaneda could not assert constitutional claims against them, the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles excoriated the defendants for an “attempt to sidestep responsibility for what appears to be…one of the most, if not the most, egregious Eighth Amendment violations the Court has ever encountered.” The Eighth Amendment entitles detainees and prisoners to adequate medical care and prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. “If [Castaneda’s] evidence holds up, the conduct that he has established on the part of Defendants is beyond cruel and unusual,” the Court wrote. The ruling added that the government’s own records “bespeak of conduct that transcends negligence by miles” and which, if true, “should be taught to every law student as conduct for which the moniker ‘cruel’ is inadequate.” According to the Court, “the care afforded to [Mr. Castaneda] by Defendants can be characterized by one word: nothing.” FULL STORY Public Justice's Threat of Lawsuit Prompts Indiana High Schools to Reverse Decision Preventing High School Girl from Playing Baseball
Heather Bauduin, a 16-year-old Wabash, Ind., high school junior, was told she would not be allowed to play baseball for her school because she was a girl. But, in a victory for gender equity in athletics secured by Public Justice and Philadelphia’s Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin (HASP), Heather will get to go out for the Wabash High School baseball team after all. On Feb. 28, 2008, after a sex discrimination lawsuit was threatened by Public Justice and HASP, a review committee of the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) reversed the decision of its Commissioner and granted Heather’s request for a waiver of a statewide IHSAA rule that prohibits girls from participating in high school baseball if the school offers softball. An accomplished baseball player who recently moved to Indiana from California, Heather has spent nearly half of her life playing baseball. When she was nine years old, she signed up for her local little league team and fell in love with the game. She excelled as she moved up the little league ranks, and was the first girl to be named to her town’s All Star teams in both the 9- to 12-year-old age bracket and the 12- to 14-year-old age bracket. Under the IHSAA rule, Heather was denied even the right to try out for Wabash High’s baseball team solely because of her gender. FULL STORY New Coal Plant Threatens Public Health, Shenandoah National Park Environment, Conservation and Health Groups Take Protective Action Coalition Cites Expired Permit, Unmet Emissions Standards
Wellington Development cannot build a controversial waste coal-fired power plant in southwestern Pennsylvania because its construction permit has expired and does not meet current legal standards designed to ensure the lowest possible emissions of toxic mercury, according to multiple legal challenges filed Wednesday by Public Justice on behalf of the Sierra Club, National Parks Conservation Association, Group Against Smog and Pollution, and Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The waste coal-fired power plant would emit harmful levels of toxic mercury, and according to the National Park Service, would damage air quality at Shenandoah National Park. The coalition seeks to force the plant to update its expired construction permit and meet emissions standards that are protective of public health and the national park. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a Plan Approval permit in June 2005, authorizing Wellington to construct a 525-megawatt waste coal-fired power plant in Nemacolin (Greene County), Pennsylvania. The plan required Wellington to begin construction within 18 months of the date of approval, meaning late December, 2006. Numerous aerial photographs over the last year show that Wellington has not “commenced construction” of the power plant as defined by the law, prompting Wednesday’s federal court action, alleging that Wellington’s permit is no longer valid. Click here for FULL STORY, complaint, and petition. Public Justice Files Title IX Retaliation and Defamation Case Against FGCU for Mistreatment of Head Volleyball Coach
Public Justice
filed a federal lawsuit against
The lawsuit stands on Title IX - the same law that Coach Jaye Flood said the university is flouting - and notes "a continuing series of retaliatory acts" against Flood, the most successful coach in FGCU history and this year's Atlantic Sun Conference "Coach of the Year."
In response to
Flood's advocacy of gender equity in the university's
athletic department, the complaint charges, the university
berated Flood's job performance, placed her on probation and
administrative leave, denied her a salary raise and bonus,
and announced her contract will not be renewed when it
expires this summer. The school also "made defamatory
statements intended to damage her professional reputation,"
the suit says.
FULL STORY
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