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A class action lawsuit has been filed in the Eastern District Court of Missouri against Bank of America for violations of banking law. Class members seek damages, injunctive relief, attorney's fees and costs of the litigation.

A statewide class action has been filed in Florida against Sears Home Improvement Services, Inc. The action is brought on behalf of all Florida residents who, since April 1999, have had vinyl siding installed by Sears on their home. The action alleges that Sears has violated Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act by overestimating the amount of materials required for the installation job and then not crediting the purchasers for any unused material that was not in the estimate. The purchasers are seeking unspecified compensatory damages a well as injunctive and declaratory relief.

A statewide class action has been filed in New York against Integretel, Inc., Mercury Marketing of Delaware, Inc. and Neal Saferstein, owner of these companies. The action is brought on behalf of all New York residents who, since 1997, never agreed to pay for an Internet service, or any other service, from Mercury Marketing of Delaware, Inc., or its subsidiaries, but who have been billed by Mercury on their phone bills anyway. The consumers allege that, in agreement with local phone services providers such as Verizon Wireless, Mercury and its subsidiaries illegally piggyback fees for services that are never provided onto consumers' telephone bills. Consumers allege that Mercury and its subsidiaries have a long history of this illegal conduct and have engaged in fraud, breach of contract, breach of warranty, unjust enrichment, tortious conversion and deceptive trade practices as a result of this conduct. Additionally, the consumers allege that Mercury's subsidiary, Integretel, Inc., has violated the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by attempting to and actually collecting from consumers for these nonexistent services. The consumers are seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, disgorgement of profits, treble damages as well as injunctive and declaratory relief.

Several class actions have been filed against sportswear manufacturer Vans, Inc. (Nasdaq: VANS) and certain of its officers and directors by stockholders who purchased the company's common stock between March 24, 1999, and May 23, 2002. The actions claim that the defendants violated federal securities laws by issuing a series of material misrepresentations to the market over this time period, thereby artificially inflating the price of the company's securities.

The parties have reached a settlement valued at $9.7 million in a class action filed against Microsoft Corporation on behalf of consumers who, between March 31, 1995, and December 31, 2002, resided in Vermont and indirectly purchased Microsoft operating system, productivity suite, spreadsheet, or word processing software for use in Vermont. The action alleged that Microsoft violated Vermont’s consumer fraud act by illegitimately using its monopoly power. Persons eligible to take part in the settlement may contact attorneys for the class for more information.

Matthew Enderlin, an Arkansas resident, filed a class action lawsuit against XM Satellite Radio, claiming that the company's marketing of its music channels as completely commercial free is "false, misleading and deceptive." The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Arkansas, seeks punitive damages and to prohibit the D.C. company from advertising and selling "commercial-free" products.

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