It’s really, really hard to assess the wisdom of a settlement from the outside. Almost every settlement represents a tradeoff of legitimate interests in a condition of uncertainty. It’s perhaps extra hard to assess settlements in the context of litigation on behalf of the public. Was a settlement for $X a major victory, a stinging defeat, a vehicle for inserting badly needed cash into a broken system, a capitulation to the realities of various political winds, a signal of seriousness to others, a one-off acknowledgement of potential shortfalls in the particular legal barriers in a particular case, a moment of delivering justice to those harmed by the powerful? None of the above? All of the above?
Even with that acknowledgement, I found myself wondering about Kamala Harris’s record on settlements as AG.
I suspect (hope?) that someone has compiled a more comprehensive list. A sampling of ten settlements (below) has given me much to think about over coffee this morning.
False Claims Act settlement with Quest Diagnostics. $241M. https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-kamala-d-harris-announces-241-million-settlement-quest
False Claims, False Advertising, Unfair Competition claims against for-profit schools. $160M
Wrongful Foreclosure cases against the Five Biggest Banks. $12B.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-senate-harris-banks-20161016-snap-story.html
Privacy Violations by Wells Fargo. $8.5M.
Underground fuel storage tank violations. $14M
Diesel Engine Exhaust at Ports.
Unpaid wages for carwash workers. $1M.
Illegal Eviction of Military Servicemembers. $252k
Consumer Protection violations by GSK. $7M
Industrial project in Riverside, Environmental impact.
Hoping that someone can offer a more thorough treatment of what feels like an important question.
MM
