We enjoy a distinct national reputation for excellence in the area of consumer fraud litigation. This litigation includes individual cases as well as class actions that have been filed throughout the country. Most of the cases in this section involve wrongful conduct of insurance and finance companies including fraud and bad faith. We are also a national leader in the fight against mandatory binding arbitration in consumer contracts.

We have represented thousands of policyholders throughout this country who have purchased life insurance from major insurance companies. Most of these claims are based on the fraudulent representation that premiums would vanish and the policies would be “paid up” at some point, usually eight to ten years after the purchase date. These “vanishing premium” cases are a prime example of “boardroom fraud” designed to mislead consumers for financial gain.

We continue to handle cases wherein insurance companies have wrongfully charged African American consumers higher premiums based solely on race. We are also currently handling cases involving insurance companies selling consumers worthless health insurance policies while they are on Medicaid or selling senior citizens “bait and switch” health care policies. We handle cases involving the fraudulent pricing of insurance products, i.e., “death spiral” pricing which ultimately results in consumers being left without health insurance coverage.

We continue to litigate predatory lending cases. These involve cases against finance companies for insurance packaging (packing on unnecessary insurance to loans), flipping (forced refinancing), and equity stripping financing.

We recently have filed a number of cases on behalf of employees that have improperly been denied rightful payment of overtime benefits at their job. These FLSA cases are filed as "collective actions" and one effect "opt in" class actions. We recently won certification of a class filed against Dollar General stores.

We are pursing financial securities claims against brokers, bond insurers and a variety of other financial institutions (such as banks and broker/dealers) across the nation. Specifically, we are representing clients who have been defrauded in the securities market through the purchase of stocks and bonds. These cases typically involve claims of breach of contract and/or fraudulent misrepresentations concerning the viability of a company, the safety level of particular investments, churning of investment accounts and providing fraudulent financial statements. Among these cases we are currently investigating are Regions Morgan Keegan investments, a variety of Mutual Funds, and cases involving stock in Chesapeake Energy Corporation. We are pursing securities cases for individual consumers as well as class actions.

In this section, we have had numerous verdicts and settlements in excess of $1 million, including a $581 million verdict dealing with a door-to-door finance scam, a $55 million settlement involving cancer insurance, a $45 million verdict dealing with the sale and finance of vinyl siding, a $35 million verdict in a fraudulent mortgage case, a $25 million verdict involving a vanishing premium case.

In addition, we have obtained for our clients numerous confidential multi-million dollar “group” settlements with insurance and finance defendants.