Consumer

For nearly four decades, Berman Tabacco has represented and recovered millions of dollars on behalf of consumers injured by corporate misconduct, including false advertising and deceptive marketing, product defects, data breaches, and unfair billing and lending practices.  Most recently, Berman Tabacco applied its extensive complex class action experience to fight against unlawful and predatory lending practices.   We served as lead counsel in several class action lawsuits brought on behalf of individuals who were alleged to have been exploited by illegal online payday lending schemes.  The cases alleged that payday lenders issued loans in the name of companies established by Native American tribes, including American Web Loan, Plain Green and Great Plains Lending, in a brazen attempt to dodge usury laws and charge unlawful triple-digit interest rates.

Benchmark Litigation has recognized Berman Tabacco as a top plaintiff class action law firm.  Notable consumer class action settlements include:

• Solomon v. American Web Loan, Inc., et al., No. 4:17-cv-145 (E.D. Va.) ($186.5 million settlement, with $86 million in cash recovery, cancellation of $100.5 million worth of outstanding class period loans, and other significant non-monetary and injunctive relief)
• In re Columbia Gas Cases, No. 18-77CV01343G (Mass. Super. Ct., Essex Cty.) ($143 million settlement fund to compensate people and business impacted by the Columbia Gas explosions in the Merrimack Valley area of Massachusetts)
• Gringras v. Rosette, No. 5:15-CV-00101-GWC (D. Vt.) ($47 settlement to consumer borrowers)
• Carlin v. DairyAmerica, Inc., No. 1:09-cv-00430 (E.D. Cal.) ($40 million settlement on behalf of a class of dairy farmers who sold raw milk according to prices set by the federal government)
• Trabakoolas v. Watts Water Technologies, Inc., 4:12-Cv-01172-YGR (N.D. Cal.) ($23 million settlement to reimburse class members who experienced property damage)