HERE ARE SOME PENDING CASES

• Class actions against property property management companies for illegally pulling credit reports.  Anyone who rented in California from Essex Properties, Prometheus Management, CTL Management, FPI Management, Far West Management, Irvine Company, Lyon Apartments, Oakwood Apartments, VPM Management, Progress Management, Shea Properties, or others should contact this office.  If you applied to rent an apartment in California you may be entitled to up $10,000 in compensation. 

• 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 is being sued for credit reporting violations.  Crooked collection agenices 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.  Household Finance and Collins Financial Services were also involved in one class action.
• Ongoing litigation against companies that provide financing for purchases induced by means of fraud.  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 E-Commerce Exchange are also involved, all of whom then deny any responsibility for the fraud.  The original vendor then often disappears.  Settlements with some of those companies resulted in million of dollars of debt forgiveness or restitution with more cases pending.  Update:  In March 2005, the attorney for Duvera Billing threatened this law firm with a "defamation" lawsuit unless we agreed to dismiss the lawsuit againt Duvera Billing.  He claimed this website previously stated that Duvera Billing had paid millions of dollars to settle fraud allegations.  That is not true.  This website never said any such thing.  As for his apparent attempt to blackmail us into dismissing the legitimate lawsuit against Duvera Billing, that will not happen.  Duvera Billing has not sued us as of May 2007.
• 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., Lenscrafters, The Vitamin Shoppe, Choice Financial Funding, and Lenscrafters, General Nutrition Corporation.
• Predatory lenders charging nearly 100 percent interest have been targeted.  Offenders include City Loan and Growth Resources Group.
• 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 me wrong and may be illegal.  A lawsuit is pending against Equity Residential, one of the nation's largest apartment owners for overcharging tenants for utility charges.
• 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.
• Class action against First Advantage Saferent, formerly known as Saferent, Inc., First American Registry, and U.D. Registry, companies which report "evictions" to landlords and contributes to "blacklisting" of tenants. If you applied to rent an apartment in California between 1999 and 2007, and especially if you were ever denied an apartment because of false information on your eviction report, contact this office.  Even if you the report is accurate, you still may be entitled to receive a $10,000 penalty.  In August 2003, First American Registry threatened to sue this website for publishing its name.  Funny, they don't care about publishing your name and preventing you from getting housing.  So far, no lawsuit filed against yours truly.  Read the NY Times story about tenant blacklisting:  http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/08/garden/08TURF.html?pagewanted=print&position.
• 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 is investigating predatory lending practices by companies like Ameriquest,  Fremont Investment and Loan, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo.  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.
• Actions against Storage USA and Public Storage, self-service storage companies, for charging excessive late fees to thousands of renters and illegally auctioning stored property.
• Class action against Verizon Wireless and Asurion for deceptive practices in the sales of cellular phone replacement policies. 
• Litigation against department stores like Robinsons-May and apartment owners like Fairfield Residential concerning legality of certain "late payment" fees.  If you have paid or been charged "late payment" fees to any merchant or landlord, contact this office.
• 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.  Case against National Bank of the Redwoods was dismissed but has now been reinstated after an appeal.
• Class Action against Ralphs' Grocery Stores for not honoring a sales promotion.  This resulted in a large settlement to tens of thousands of customers.
• Litigation against credit card companies for sending out deceptive convenience check offers.  Please contact us if you reside in California and used the convenience or credit card checks.