Complex litigation

Individuals need protection from unscrupulous consumer practices.  Billions of dollars of fraud and violations of warranty occur each year that go unredressed.  Scott Bloch has spent his legal career standing up for the rule of law and working to bring relief to individuals and families who have been wronged by corporations, government, and other individuals.

He filed a landmark case against top government contractors for fraud and abuse against injured employees worldwide under the Defense Base Act.  Read more here.

Bloch initiated the class action against General Motors that resulted in a national settlement valued at $300 million. His group brought Gutzler v. General Motors Corp and were the only group of attorneys in the country who obtained class certification on the product Dex Cool and its violations of consumer warranties under the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act.

In the arena of legal malpractice, he has worked with nationally recognized attorney William Skepnek to change the law on how trial lawyers settle claims on behalf of their clients in mass tort cases.    The Houston Phillips 66 plant explosion was considered the largest industrial accident in U.S. history.  We represented explosion victims in brain injury and other serious injuries.  As well, we represented a group of survivors of death cases and other injury claimants who had been victimized a second time by their attorneys.

In Arce v. Burrow, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in their favor and required rich trial lawyers to answer for their breaches of fiduciary duties toward their catastrophically injured clients.

Scott Bloch believes in the rights of individuals in the workplace, and in addition to speaking and writing nationally about those rights, he has brought complex actions against corporations and agencies who violate those rights, under Title VII, the Americans with Disabilties Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Consumer Protection Acts, and other laws designed to vindicate individual rights.  Recently he filed a national class action on overtime rights of hundreds of persons affected by a large corporation’s refusal to pay for overtime of its workers.  He also filed a class action against a major retailer nationally for unscrupulous practices in dealing with consumer complaints and warranty repairs on household products.

Recently he filed a class action against private security contractor Xe Services, formerly called Blackwater Worldwide, for in excess of $60,000,000 for benefits and withholding taxes denied to thousands of employees who risked their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan to protect high ranking officials and dignitaries of the United States as personal security specialists.  See PRESS RELEASE Suit against Xe Blackwater concerning that unfortunate mistreatment of these brave workers.

He has litigated Aircrash cases, and in government earned great respect nationally for taking on the FAA and airlines who flew unsafe airplanes.  He was recently interviewed by a Polish National Daily newspaper concerning the aircrash that killed the Polish President and much of his cabinet on April 10, 2010.  In this interview he speaks about the need for oversight and transparency in the crash of the airplane in Russia:  “The Polish people must demand a thorough and independent investigation to get to the bottom of the causes of that crash, and they must not give up,” said Bloch.

The Dallas morning news reported how Scott Bloch took on the federal government’s cover up of near misses at Air Traffic Control facilities and fraudulent assignment of pilot errors to cover up FAA errors.  Scott Bloch took on Southwest Airlines for fraudulent cover up of dangerous cracks in the fuselages of aircraft in passenger service, which was reported nationally in USA Today, The Washington Post, Tom Costello story on whistleblowers and grounding of Southwest flights, CNN, The New York Times,NPR, and  The Today Show on NBC.  Here is the Honorable Scott J. Bloch’s testimony before Congress explaining the dangerous avoidance by FAA and the airlines of their duty to report and fix violations of Airworthiness Directives.

In uncovering environmental safety, a recent opinion piece credited Bloch with making a difference in Federal Prisons in 2007 as well as today, due to heroic interventions on behalf of whistleblower Leroy Smith.  This originally broke nationally onNational Public Radio in which Bloch and Smith explained the cover up and refusal of the Department of Justice to do anything about the dangerous emissions of chemicals.

In the arena of Financial Services fraud, Scott Bloch intervened on behalf of the government in the Pequot Financial Services insider trading whistleblower retaliation case.  The case garnered significant publicity and hearings before the Senate, and recently the SEC concluded that Pequot was guilty of insider trading which resulted in an large settlement.  The whistleblower whom Bloch backed after he came to Bloch as head of the Office of Special Counsel, recently settled his claims against the SEC for retaliating against him when he brought Pequod’s misdeeds to light, and complained that Pequod’s CEO was being given a pass for political reasons due to his association with the President of the United States.

In the arena of Public Integrity, Bloch became very well known and upset powerful people in the party that appointed him to the Senate-Confirmed Post for protecting whistleblowers.  His work in upholding the law under the Hatch Act caused high ranking officials to have to leave office, including the head of a large federal agency that handles all government contracts and buildings, as well as a United States Attorney, and an Inspector General.  In addition to revealing wrongdoing in government on National Public Radio, he also protected the whistleblowers (see US News Profile on Bloch May 2007) who brought these matters to the government’s and the public’s attention.

He has dedicated himself to protecting whistleblowers in the private sector in recent government contracting problems in missile defense contracts, Iraq and Afghanistan, pharmaceutical company cover ups, and aviation false claims cases.   He recently settled a case favorably for a high level employee of a defense contractor who brought to light irregularities in reporting and false claims investigations, and was forced to leave his position.  He is currently involved in a government contracting dispute involving officials who were imprisoned for bribery and violations of anti-kickback laws.

Persons who have been aggrieved as consumers or who have serious problems with companies or government agencies need a strong advocate who can help them band together with others.  Contact us for a free consultation.