The Ferguson File - September 2017

Oct 2 2017

Dear Friends,

Companies are free to pursue profit, but their actions must be lawful.

If companies exploit workers or lie to consumers about their products to increase profits, they are responsible for the consequences. I will continue to fight illegal actions made by powerful interests and hold them responsible for the damaging effects they have on Washington patients, consumers and residents. I will continue to fight for hardworking Washingtonians who lack the resources to hire a high-priced law firm to advocate on their behalf.

In addition, I will continue to stand up for Dreamers and fight back against President Trump’s cruel order ending DACA. I am pleased to have many Washington businesses standing with me in this fight.

In this issue:

$41 million back to consumers in LCD collusion case
Fighting to keep Dreamers here to stay
Detention Center operator can’t run its facility on bags of chips
St. Joseph’s strays from its mission, neglects vulnerable patients
Purdue Pharma’s solution to potential opioid addiction: prescribe more

Thank you for following the work of the Attorney General’s Office.

Sincerely,

Bob Ferguson
Washington State Attorney General

$41 million back to consumers in LCD collusion case

As Attorney General, I hold powerful interests that don’t play by the rules accountable. Thanks to my office’s work, more than 24,000 consumers and businesses who bought devices and appliances with LCD flat screens will find a check in their mailboxes over the next couple weeks. Consumers in all 39 Washington counties will receive checks.

In 2015, I recovered tens of millions in a case against eight LCD manufacturers, including Samsung and Sharp. The case returns money to Washington consumers that they lost due to eight years of price fixing by multinational corporations. Consumers who filed claims with my office will receive their portion of the $41 million in consumer recoveries.

KIRO 7 News – Jesse Jones
Checks to go out in State’s LCD Settlement

The Chronicle
Washington Consumers to Get $4.1 Million in LCD Price-Fixing Case

Fighting to keep Dreamers here to stay

Nearly 18,000 Dreamers that live in Washington have contributed to our state’s diversity and economy since Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) began. In early September, President Trump decided to end the policy and put the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people across the country in jeopardy, exposing them to deportation. On Sept. 6, I filed a lawsuit to halt the President’s decision to end this important program.

My lawsuit argues that the President once again was motivated by discriminatory animus, violating the Constitution. I also allege that the action violates DACA recipients’ Due Process Rights, as they were promised that the information they provided to the federal government cannot be used against them.

My office already went to federal court for the first hearing in the DACA case on Sept. 26, and we will again defend the policy in court on Jan. 18, 2018. I want Washington’s Dreamers to know that I will do everything in my power to protect them from this illegal action.

Crosscut
If Dreamers were white: Why Washington is suing over DACA

The News Tribune
Washington state sues Trump over plan to end ‘Dreamer’ protections for young immigrants

NPR
States Sue To Block DACA Termination, Citing Trump's 'Racial Animus'

Detention Center operator can’t run its facility on bags of chips

GEO Group, Inc. (GEO) operates the Northwest Detention Center as a for-profit, private company. It is the only for-profit detention facility in the state. Washington state law has a very specific exemption under minimum wage laws for incarcerated individuals in publicly run, local, county, or state institutions. GEO does not fit into that category, and its detainees do not fall under that exemption, because they are not prisoners.

This means that GEO cannot maintain its facility through the work of detainees, who are paid $1 per day or sometimes in snacks. GEO’s illegal actions have saved them millions of dollars that should have gone to detainees or community members searching for work. The practice must stop, which is why I filed a lawsuit against GEO. If GEO wants to continue to treat detainees as workers, it needs to pay them the minimum wage. A dollar a day or a bag of chips simply will not suffice.

The Stranger
WA Attorney General Sues Private Prison Company Over $1 Per Day Wages at Immigrant Jail

Seattle Weekly
Ferguson Sues Northwest Detention Center Operator Over $1-a-Day Wages

The Olympian
State sues Tacoma’s Northwest Detention Center for paying immigrant detainees $1 a day

St. Joseph’s strays from its mission, neglects vulnerable patients

Every hospital in Washington state must provide charity care. There are rules that go with that requirement, such as advising patients of the program’s existence, automatically screening patients for their eligibility and requiring only one income-related document in the application process. St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Tacoma violated all of those requirements. The hospital’s practices forced one man to question his ability to receive heart surgery and unlawfully sent one of its own employee’s bills to a debt collector.

You may think that a nonprofit hospital like St. Joseph’s had simply made a mistake, but that was not the case. My lawsuit alleges that top executives at the hospital not only knew about the issues, but trained personnel to aggressively seek payment – even when it was obvious that patients were homeless.

Weeks later, I also filed a lawsuit against for-profit hospital Capital Medical Center for the same egregious conduct. I will continue to be a watchdog for those in need of affordable health care.

The News Tribune
State sues Tacoma’s St. Joseph Medical Center, saying it illegally withheld charity care

The Seattle Times
Washington attorney general sues Tacoma hospital, saying it withheld charity care

The Olympian
State sues Capital Medical Center, alleging it denied charity care

Purdue Pharma’s solution to potential opioid addiction: prescribe more

In 2015, opioid overdoses claimed more Washington lives than car crashes. In 2011, at the peak of overall sales in Washington, more than 112 million daily doses of all prescription opioids were dispensed in the state — enough for a 16-day supply for every woman, man and child in Washington.

This month, I sued Purdue Pharma for deceiving doctors and patients and misrepresenting the risks of its drugs. For example, Purdue persuaded doctors that signs of addiction were actually under-treatment of pain, convincing them to prescribe higher opioid dosages for their patients without any evidence that long-term prescriptions were safe or effective.

I believe Purdue Pharma should be held accountable for its role in the opioid epidemic. I don’t know how Purdue executives sleep at night, knowing they have brought pain and suffering to thousands of Washington families and communities.

The Seattle Times
Washington state AG Bob Ferguson, Seattle sue OxyContin maker over opioid deaths

SeattlePI
City of Seattle, Washington state sue 'Big Pharma' over opioids

The Stranger
State AG, City Attorney Announce Lawsuits Against OxyContin Manufacturer

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