The War for Consumer Justice: Navigating the Evolving Legal System
7 March 2025
The legal system is meant to protect consumers, but big banks and corporations increasingly find ways to avoid accountability. One of my biggest cases to date, a nearly $25 million FACTA case against IKEA, highlighted this issue. While the case was significant, it also sheds light on a larger problem: consumers face increasing difficulty enforcing their rights in court.
At Lexicon Law, we handled a large case against IKEA for violating the law and its consumers' rights by printing multiple credit card digits on customer receipts. According to the law, showing credit card numbers or expiration dates on receipts carries a $100 fine, and this case was based on that.
While the settlement was substantial, it wasn’t the most gratifying. People hear about it and think, “Oh, big deal, it’s just a receipt.” But legally, these cases are more complex than they seem. You have to know exactly where to file them, which jurisdictions will approve them, and which courts will allow a settlement to be administered. It’s not as simple as finding a violation—it requires deep knowledge of the legal landscape.
And that landscape is getting increasingly complicated. You might have heard about "standing" in the legal world, which is your legal right to bring a lawsuit to court. Unfortunately, many cases are being thrown out because big banks and corporations are winning as courts tighten the rules on who has the right to sue. Conversely, consumers are losing ground because they can’t sue for statutory damages anymore, which is a big problem.
Take the $100 FACTA penalty, for example—it’s like a speeding ticket. The law says, don’t do this, or you’ll pay. But now courts are saying you can’t recover damages here, leaving consumers with no real way to enforce their rights. Laws are being passed to protect people, but they’re meaningless if they can’t be enforced in court.
The larger picture is that the legal system is changing to make it impossible for consumers to have any standing in court. And that’s something we all have to realize and consider when representing our clients.
At Lexicon Law, we are ready to fight for our clients and allow them the opportunity to act on their rights. The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.
At Lexicon Law, we focus on representing consumers who large corporations have harmed, and no harm is considered “too small" for us. Too often, large corporations exploit individuals who may not have the resources to fight back through aggressive and unfair tactics. We believe in holding them accountable and are committed to ensuring that our clients get the justice they deserve. A case that stands out to us was one where a bankruptcy client was unfairly targeted by her bank, ultimately leading to a class action victory. I remember representing a woman in bankruptcy court who the bank relentlessly targeted. They filed motions to dismiss her case, forcing me to appear in court four times to defend her. In reality, banks employ highly aggressive strategies, and there are few regulations to hold them accountable. At that point, my only option was to ask the judge to reimburse my fees for the unnecessary time and effort the bank had forced upon me. Most lawyers wouldn’t have appeared on behalf of a bankruptcy client that often—after all, there was no money in it, and many would have lost faith in their client. But I stuck with her. During the case, I discovered that the bank charged her a $7.50 "convenience fee" every time she made a mortgage payment. That didn’t sit right with me, so I took action and sued the bank for these unfair charges. What made this case particularly satisfying was that it wasn’t just about her—I was able to file a class action on behalf of all affected customers in California who had been charged this fee by the bank. We ended up settling for about $700,000. At Lexicon Law, this case is a perfect example of our work standing up for the powerless and opposing corporate misconduct. It wasn’t just about one woman's battle but standing up for all customers who had been wrongfully charged. Even while the $700,000 settlement wasn't the biggest one we've ever obtained, it strengthened our commitment to stand against unethical behavior, demand accountability, and ensure our clients an equal opportunity at justice. Eventually, this case led me to take on Bank of America, where they did the same thing to their customers by charging them these unfair payments. What made this case particularly satisfying was that it was entirely my idea. After dealing with banks for so long, I could identify the issue, reverse engineer an ad on Facebook to find an organic client, team up with another attorney, and sue Bank of America. That case ended up settling for just under $3 million. It felt good—not just winning but spotting the problem, acting, and building the case from the ground up.
In my career, I've handled a high volume of cases with low modifications, and it was a complex and challenging fight. Every case, whether a class action or individual litigation, requires the same effort as you must go through the legal system's motions and mechanics. Over time, I realized that while individual cases can be robust, class actions offer unique leverage to shift the balance in favor of consumers. At one point, a class action attorney approached me about some of my cases, wanting to join forces and bring new ideas. While those ideas didn’t necessarily work out, I learned a lot about the power and leverage consumers can have when filing as a class action rather than an individual case. I was mesmerized by the impact of these settlements and their reach. At the time, I was in a consumer-only practice, fighting against big banks, which was a constant struggle. But the class action angle gave us leverage in the fight. Today, at Lexicon Law we handle cases all over the country, and almost every case involves teaming up with one or two firms. Every case we take on is like going to battle. The defense firms have a lot of lawyers on their side, and when you're up against big, sharp defense teams, you need a strong group where everyone brings something different to the table. Various firms have different strengths—sometimes, it's a jurisdictional advantage because they’re local, and other times, it’s their expertise. I learned this early on because I was the small guy starting out on these cases. The time and expenses required for these files are substantial. You need a strong staff, resources to cover overhead, and the patience to endure cases that can take years. It’s a challenging venture, and teaming up helps manage these challenges and gives consumers a better chance at winning. Litigation requires teamwork, especially against big banks and corporations. It takes a team to win these battles, and that’s what we are doing at Lexicon Law. By collaborating with other firms that bring different strengths, we maximize our ability to take on even the most formidable opponents. Class actions, in particular, provide a strategic advantage, reinforcing the idea that strength truly comes in numbers.
