Category: Consumer Protection Law

auto purchase or loan

A Dane County jury ordered Toby’s Auto Sales and Body shop to pay $156,660 in damages to a customer whose car was illegally repossessed and who was then harassed by the dealer when she tried to get her property back. Toby’s Auto repossessed the customer’s vehicle, but did so before it provided her with a […]

Court Reopens One Main Financial’s Debt Collection Case Based on Concerns that One Main’s Complaint May Have Been Illegal

One Main Financial’s legal troubles continue to mount as a Dodge County judge vacated a judgment and allowed a debtor to file counterclaims in a small claims collection case. One Main had filed suit against the debtor in May 2023. The debtor was not able to go to court and did not think she could […]

Citibank will have to pay damages and attorney’s fees for violating Wisconsin law in its collection efforts

Citibank violated the Wisconsin Consumer Act by its conduct directed at its customer, an arbitrator found on June 20, 2024. The case began with Citibank suing the customer in small claims court. The customer retained Attorney Briane Pagel of LawtonCates and filed a counterclaim, leading Citi to demand arbitration. In arbitration, represented by Ballard Spahr […]

Brensten Education, which closed in January 2016, must go to a jury trial on claims brought against it by former students, Judge Pedro Colon in Milwaukee ruled recently. The former students, represented by Briane Pagel and LawtonCates filed suit in 2017, alleging that Brensten’s radio advertisements were misleading and that Brensten failed to deliver on […]

CreditBox, a short term lender that has been a party to over 3,000 lawsuits in Wisconsin, recently paid $55,000 to LawtonCates and its client to settle claims that it had treated a customer unfairly. CreditBox had sued the customer, and gotten a default judgment. The customer then hired LawtonCates and our firm was able to […]

The state Department of Natural Resources and the village of East Troy in Walworth County are the subjects of a potentially precedent-setting lawsuit filed last week by several individuals and two lake management districts over potential damage to a spring-fed lake and nearby wetlands by a proposed municipal high-capacity well. The well could pump 1.4 […]

We see insurance companies in action almost every day. While not all of them act in bad faith, many of the largest companies changed business tactics in the 1990s to maximize profits while minimizing claim payments. Many of these are also the companies with the catchy advertising slogans and the quirky commercials. This month we […]