Monday at 1:29 p.m.
Filed under:
Autos,
Consumer news,
Government
By Ameet Sachdev
A Viking Dodge dealership in Crystal Lake that closed in 2009. (Stacey Wescott/Chicago Tribune)
Illinois lawmakers are considering legislation that would protect consumers when auto dealerships close and fail to pay liens on trade-in vehicles.
In several instances, according to Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, lien holders have sought payments from consumers who traded in their vehicles to buy new ones. At least 60 dealerships have gone out of business since 2000 without paying off trade-ins, according to Madigan. Get the full story »
March 9 at 4:45 p.m.
Filed under:
Litigation
By Alejandra Cancino
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a lawsuit against four ice companies that allegedly agreed not to compete against each other. The suit claims that the four packaged ice manufacturers — Lang Ice Co., Home City Ice, Sisler’s Dairy and Products Inc. and Tinley Ice Company — made deals to divvy up markets, trade customers and share price information in central and northern Illinois. Get the full story »
March 2 at 3:56 p.m.
Filed under:
Investigations
By Gregory Karp
A Chicago-based debt-settlement company used lawyers as a “front” to illegally collect massive fees from financially struggling consumers who were seeking help, Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleged Wednesday.
Madigan filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the national firm Legal Helpers Debt Resolution, based at 233 S. Wacker Drive in Chicago.
The company, also known as the law firm Macey, Aleman, Hyslip & Searns, charged upfront fees for debt-consolidation services, which became illegal in Illinois last year, the suit alleges. Get the full story »
Feb. 24 at 10:00 a.m.
Filed under:
Health care,
Investigations,
Litigation
By Bruce Japsen
Illinois’ largest health insurance company will pay $25 million to settle allegations that it denied coverage to sick children in need of nursing care by “fraudulently” shifting their claims to Illinois’ Medicaid program, state and federal prosecutors said this morning.
The settlement, reached by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, follows several years of complaints from patients and their families. The patients reached out to Madigan’s office after their claims were denied by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois.
The cost of the medical care, which included so-called private-duty nurses for sick children and other ill patients, should have been covered by Illinois Blue Cross, but instead was shifted to Medicaid at a cost of nearly $12 million, prosecutors said. The claims were denied based on “internal, undisclosed guidelines that were more restrictive than the language provided to patients in plan policy materials,” Madigan’s office said. Get the full story »
Feb. 18 at 10:34 a.m.
Filed under:
Policy,
Politics
By Associated Press
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s office says it raised nearly $1 billion in state revenue last year through a variety of litigation and the collection of estate-tax revenues.
Dec. 15, 2010 at 1:52 p.m.
Filed under:
Litigation,
Media,
TV
By Bruce Japsen
DirecTV Group Inc. has agreed to pay $13.3 million in civil penalties and costs, including $185,000 to the state of Illinois, to settle allegations that the satellite-TV service provider used misleading sales and marketing practices. Get the full story »
Nov. 22, 2010 at 12:16 p.m.
Filed under:
Consumer news,
Government,
Recalls
By Gregory Karp
Superhero flashlights, Shrek drinking glasses from McDonald’s, a Fisher-Price inflatable ball and a boys’ Santa suit from Macy’s all seem innocent enough. But they were among the 147 children products — some 44 million individual items — recalled so far this year in the United States for being potentially dangerous.
Because the number of recalls has become overwhelming for parents to track — about double the number from last year — the Illinois Attorney General’s office has for the fourth year compiled an annual “Play it Safe” guide of dangerous toys, jewelry, baby gear and clothing. Items in the guide have been recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2010. Get the full story »
Nov. 16, 2010 at 3:16 p.m.
Filed under:
Real estate
By Mary Ellen Podmolik
An abandoned foreclosed house in Highland Park in 2009. (David Trotman-Wilkins/Chicago Tribune)
Mortgage servicers would not be able to put a home into foreclosure until they could detail specifically why all modification efforts failed, under legislation proposed Tuesday by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.
The bill, which would amend the Illinois Mortgage Foreclosure Act, also is intended to prevent the practice of cutting corners and rubber-stamping foreclosure files as accurate as they head toward judgment, a practice that has drawn headlines and spawned an ongoing investigation into lenders’ internal practices by the attorneys general of all 50 states. Get the full story »
By Reuters
Attorneys general in Illinois, Oregon and California said on Tuesday that Bayer AG agreed to a $3.3 million settlement over misleading claims that the drug maker’s vitamins reduced men’s risk of prostate cancer.
Under the terms of the settlement, Bayer cannot make claims that its One A Day Men’s multivitamins can prevent or cure prostate cancer or any other disease without scientific evidence, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a statement.
“When manufacturers like Bayer make marketing claims with insufficient scientific proof behind them, they are misleading consumers,” she said.
Get the full story »
Oct. 7, 2010 at 3:15 p.m.
Filed under:
Energy,
Environment,
Government,
Litigation
By Reuters
The Illinois attorney general sued Enbridge Inc.’s U.S. affiliate Enbridge Energy Partners Thursday, as the state seeks to have the company pay the costs to clean up an oil pipeline spill last month.
Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and James Glasgow, the state’s attorney for Will County, filed an eight-count complaint against the company. Get the full story »
Oct. 1, 2010 at 7:23 p.m.
Filed under:
Consumer news,
Regulations
By Julie Wernau
Commonwealth Edison has been padding customer bills to pay for improvements that are properly the utility’s burden, according to a Second District Appellate Court decision that could mean lowered utility bills for consumers.
The decision, handed down Friday, overturns a 2008 decision by the Illinois Commerce Commission that allowed the utility to pass on the costs associated with creating a “smart grid” to consumers, including a recently launched program to test smart meters as part of its “innovation corridor.” Get the full story »
Sep. 29, 2010 at 6:09 a.m.
Filed under:
Real estate,
Tourism,
Travel
From WBBM-Ch. 2 | Illinois residents being warned of scam artists preying on owners of vacation timeshares, posing as timeshare resellers to deceive consumers out of thousands of dollars. The Attorney General’s office has received dozens of complaints since January from timeshare owners targeted by the scam, according to a release. Get the full story >>
Sep. 2, 2010 at 11:45 a.m.
Filed under:
Crime,
Fraud,
Internet,
Technology,
Telecommunications
By Wailin Wong
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said Thursday she is suing a California company for charging consumers for identity protection services that they never requested.
The lawsuit, filed in Sangamon County Circuit Court, claims that ID Lifeguards Inc. of Glendale, Calif., charged $157,562 on the phone bills of 5,071 Illinois consumers between September 2009 and March 2010. Get the full story »
July 21, 2010 at 1:43 p.m.
Filed under:
Consumer news,
Criminal charges,
Transportation
By Problem Solver
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed suit Wednesday against a Melrose Park bus company, saying it defrauded a group of hearing-impaired students and their families.
The suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, claims Sleepless in the City Bus Service Inc., took $1,750 from the Illinois Service Resource Center, then failed to provide transportation for 55 students and their families on April 27, 2009. Get the full story »
June 29, 2010 at 10:31 p.m.
Filed under:
Litigation,
Mortgages
By Tribune staff report
The state of Illinois sued former mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp. on Tuesday for allegedly using discriminatory lending practices for minority borrowers.
The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, said an investigation revealed that African-American and Latino borrowers were much more likely to be given risky subprime loans by the lender than similarly situated whites from 2005 to 2007.
