The Walner Law Firm concentrates on several types of law, including Class Action Law, General and Complex Tort Litigation, Contractual and Transaction Law, and several other areas.

Other Areas of Concentration

• Consumer Claims- ( Partial List) of Experience and Interest
  • Defective Products
  • False Advertisement Claims
  • Product Claims that were False, Unsupported, Misrepresentations, Omissions of material fact (Company did not tell you something material to your decision to purchase the product.)
  • Overcharges and Hidden fees and taxes of various kinds
  • Insurance Claims-Failure to pay insured person full benefits promised
  • Automobile cases
    •  Med Pay – Failure to pay full medical within coverage.
    • Total Loss – Under payment of value.
    • Diminished Value – Reduced value after repairs.
    • Betterment – Charge depreciation for new parts.
    • Unearned Insurance Premiums not refunded when loan (auto or mortgage) is closed out prior to ending date.
    • Property Damage Claims.
    •  Steering by insurance company to shops that don’t fully repair insured auto for all the damage.
    •  Drive-in estimates and underpayment for collision damage.
    • Omitted Repairs.
    • Misrepresentation
  • Variable Annuities and Life Insurance Misrepresentation Claims
    • Vanishing Premiums.
    • Sales to tax sheltered entities, e.g., IRA’s, Pension Funds, Etc.
    • Flipping policies with excess cost or lower benefits.
  • Home or Business Insurance:
    • Casualty, fire and other damage.
    • Requiring Lender insurance that is in excess of cost of rebuilding.
    • Insurance in excess of Home Cost of Repair by including land value or other devices .
    • Single Premium Insurance.
    • Failure to refund unearned single premium on life or disability policies where the loan is prepaid (including prepayment totaling of the car, purchase of a new car or bankruptcy, etc.). Usually on mortgage refinancing or sale of home or vehicle loan is paid early or loan is defaulted.
    • Company charging for insurance for shipments of orders when none is actually placed.
    • Underpayment of medical benefits for insureds and doctors (usually only class action claims).
  • Privacy Law and Privacy Breech and Data mining
  • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act(H.I.P.P.A.) and Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (G.I.N.A.) lawsuits
  • Product and Strict Liability Claims
  • House Repair claims
  • Warranty Claims
  • Credit Card, Debit Card, Banking Violations, Mortgage Claims
    • Reduction for non-use within stated period.
    • – Overdrafts
      Over-Charges or
    • Charges for services not ordered
      (1) Escrow – Higher amount than needed.
      (2) Inflated or fictitious charges.
      (3) Force placed insurance.
      (4) False pricing for costs.
    • Predatory Lending.
    • Failure to refund unearned premiums on single premium life and disability policies when contract is terminated early.
      • TILA Claims (Truth in Lending) Interest Disclosure is not correct or otherwise in violation of statute.
  • Telephone, Internet, Utilities and Cable Overcharges.
    • improper tax (municipal tax on customers outside of municipality).
    • improper charges for services not ordered.
    • Improper or harrasing text, phone calls, and facimiles
    • interior wire maintenance charge without proper disclosure.
    • Hidden fees and charges
    • miscellaneous.
  • Trust Beneficiaries
    • Double dipping of bank fees; management fees plus bank mutual funds
    • Lack of diversification
    • Unsuitable investment
    • Excessive Fees
    • Failure to file claims in class cases
    • Change of Trustee
  • Health Claims
    • Refusal to pay full hospital or doctor or drug charges required in policy
    • Unsubstantiated benefits of drugs or products
    • Ineffective drugs
    • Undisclosed risks from drugs causing damage.
• Securities and Investment Claims
  • Investment fraud
  • Arbitration or litigation
  • Unsuitable investments
  • Unauthorized trading
  • Failure to diversify
  • Theft of funds
  • Financial exploitation of the elderly
  • Breach of broker or financial advisor fiduciary duty
  • Auction rated securities
  • Arbitration or court suit
  • Auction Rate Securities: action or arbitrations against brokers who sold these securities indicating a near equivalent to cash.
  • Federal Securities claims for purchases within the fraud period.
  • Broker or Investment Banker Claims: Failure to disclose conflicts of interest due to existing or prospective banking relationship.
  • Suitability claims – sale of unsuitable investments or lack of sufficient diversification.
  • Purchase of Variable Annuities in Tax Sheltered Accounts, like IRAs, pension funds and others.
  • Purchase of B shares to large investors in mutual funds without obtaining price break discounts.
  • Risk or diversification unsuitable for investor.
  • Lack of diversification.
  • Broker of advisor publicly recommending purchase while privately indicating securities should be avoided or conflicted by serving as investment banker.
  • Broker or banker failure to promptly sweep income received into interest bearing accounts.
  • Bank serving as trustee conflict of interest and breach of fiduciary duty in buying own mutual. funds which are usually not matching or exceeding results of other funds, or whose funds have expenses at the high end of mutual funds.
  • Broker Failure to pay class claims collected.
  • Hedge Funds
  • Failure to conform to stated practices or promised level of risk.
  • Failure to furnish timely or accurate results that would have permitted earlier withdrawal.
• Pension Claims
  •  Incorrect Calculation.
  • Harassment to quit or improper firing to avoid larger pension entitlement.
  • Eliminated or reduced benefit from overly restrictive vesting rules.
  • Failure to include all types of promised compensation in calculation of benefit.
  • Misclassification of temporary for long term worker to exclude them from full benefits.
  • Age discrimination.
  • Failure to make actuarially required contributions.
  • Unsuitable investments
  • Pension consultant selecting or recommending manager of assets based primarily on business relation with manager without making adequate disclosure of extent of his benefits.
• Antitrust- Antitrust lawsuits are used to stop practices that restrain trade and the free market and to compensate those who are harmed by the incident. The goal is to keep the market free, open, and competitive. These lawsuits can be filed individually, but many are antitrust class action cases because so many people are affected.
  • Price Fixing – Direct and Indirect Purchases
  • Market Allocation.
  • Illegal tie-in requiring purchases of another product.
  • Restraint of wages in markets with shortage.
  • Monopolies
  • Bid rigging
  • Price discrimination
• Whistleblower and Qui Tam Cases
• Employment Cases
  • Overtime Pay disputes
  • Discrimination
  • Various Pension Claims
  • Insurance
  • Privacy, HIPPA GINA violations
  • Denial of benefits
  • Wrongful termination
• Civil Rights Violations and Discrimination
• Elder Law violations or Financial Abuse
• Alternative Dispute Resolution- mediation, arbitration and more
• Banking law
• Bioethics
• Business law
• Commercial law and litigation
• Class actions
• Mass tort law
• Complex Tort law
• Constitutional law
• Contract law and ligation
• Defamation and libel
• Discrimination
• Environmental law
• Family law
• International human rights
• Litigation (generally)
• Privacy law
• Property and real estate law
• Tort law
• Toxic tort law
• Formation, Negotiation, and Litigation of Contracts and Other Written Instruments
• Formations of Corporations