Successful consumer protection class action against malevolent payday lender highlights the benefits and power of individuals uniting in class action lawsuits
On Monday evening, the Public Justice Foundation held its 36th Annual Gala & Awards Dinner at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. As part of the ceremony, Public Justice recognized victorious attorney efforts with its Trial Lawyer of the Year awards. This included a focus on and video describing Inetianbor v. Western Sky Financial.
Inetianbor v. Western Sky Financial centered around the conduct of payday lender CashCall, notorious for its deceptive practice of granting loans with excessively high interest rates and then forcing borrowers into a Native American tribal law-based arbitration system. CashCall claimed that this deal was protected by tribal sovereign immunity and therefore off-limits to American courts.
The video highlights several striking things about the Western Sky Financial case. First, that this type of improper corporate behavior – a payday lender misleading customers, luring them into a crippling cycle of debt, then lying about its nature, all while abusing the law – is truly ugly. Every American should reject this kind of conduct, and understand why it’s critical for the legal system to identify and address it.
The video also explains how the civil justice system, via the class action device, achieved real justice for the consumers, including tens of millions of dollars in refunds, the erasure of illegal debts, and the reparation of maligned credit records. The video focuses on the individual plaintiff, making it clear that this action wasn’t simply lawyer-driven, and that the harmed consumer played a huge role in protecting other consumers and working to fight the problem.
The video also illustrates how vile forced arbitration agreements are, and why the defendants’ efforts to use forced arbitration here were an integral part of the scam.
About Public Justice
The Public Justice Foundation is a not-for-profit, membership organization that supports Public Justice, P.C., a national public interest law firm. Public Justice is dedicated to fighting for justice through precedent-setting and socially significant individual and class action litigation.
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