Consumer Watchdog’s President and Chairman of the Board is an award-winning and nationally recognized consumer advocate. Capitol Weekly, naming Jamie to its “Top 100” list of unelected movers and shakers in California politics, wrote, “Court has made a career of battling all comers in the interest of the public, and his take-no-prisoners approach has earned him plenty of enemies.” Jamie’s latest book is The Progressive’s Guide To Raising Hell: How To Win Grassroots Campaigns, Pass Ballot Box Laws And Get The Change You Voted For (Chelsea Green, 2010).
“Americans angry about the state of their government might find in Court’s persuasive manifesto a cause for action,” Publishers Weekly writes. “With great accessibility and a fired-up attitude, Court brings his lessons in empowerment to the people.” He is also the author of Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Freedom And What You Can Do About It (Tarcher Putnam, 2003) and co-author of Making A Killing: HMOs and the Threat To Your Health (Common Courage Press, 1999). Jamie has led dozens of major corporate and political campaigns to reform insurers, banks, technology companies, oil companies, utilities and political practices. He helped to pioneer the HMO patients’ rights movement in the United States, sponsoring successful laws in California and aiding them elsewhere, and was an early champion of many of the most important consumer protections in the federal Affordable Care Act years before they were enacted. In recent years, he has led the campaign to hold California oil refiners accountable for price gouging at the pump which resulted in the toughest oil refinery regulation in America.
A frequent media commentator and op-ed contributor, Jamie is a high-profile and stalwart defender of consumers’ rights. The Los Angeles Times calls him “a tireless consumer advocate.” The Wall Street Journal writes, “He’s notorious for his dramatic, sharp-tongued attacks on the health- and auto-insurance industries, and on any politician who takes their campaign cash.” His public interest career began as an advocate for the homeless and as a community organizer. Jamie’s Alma mater is Pomona College, where he graduated with a BA in History in 1989.
FPPC Opens Investigation Into Governor’s Top Aide For Failure To Disclose Timing of Stock Sales In PG&E
Santa Monica, CA -- Following an ethics complaint filed by Consumer Watchdog against the Governor’s top aide, the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) has opened an investigation into Nancy McFadden’s failure to report the dates and times of stock sales in PG&E, her former employer, while having inside information into the government’s investigation of PG&E over the San Bruno ex
Consumer Watchdog Tells So Cal Drivers Fill Up Now, Gas Prices To Rise Quickly As Major Refiners Switch to Summer Blend And Raise Prices...
Los Angeles, CA -- The nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog today warned Southern California drivers that they would be facing sticker shock at their gasoline pumps beginning this weekend as the state’s biggest oil refiners raised wholesale prices charged to station owners by 37 cents.
Consumer Watchdog Report Finds Oil Refiners Rigged Imports and Exports To Inflate CA Gas Prices In 2015
Santa Monica, CA -- Consumer Watchdog delivered a report today to a state panel finding that California’s largest oil refiners calibrated imports and exports of gasoline to artificially inflate gasoline prices during the first nine months of 2015, when gas prices were consistently $1 per gallon higher than the nationwide average.
Watchdogs Petition PUC For Open Investigation On Porter Ranch Leak; Decry Secrecy & Question Lack of Transparency
Santa Monica, CA -- Consumer Watchdog and the law offices of Aquirre & Severson petitioned the California Public Utilities Commission for an open investigation into the Porter Ranch leak, including the immediate release of key documents and a PUC meeting in Los Angeles within 10 days to discuss the petition.
Gouged California Drivers Bankroll Chevron’s Best US Refining Year Ever
Santa Monica, CA -- Chevron's US refining profits soared to their highest ever in 2015, thanks to California drivers who paid inflated prices for gasoline, Consumer Watchdog said today.
Overpriced California Gasoline Fuels Tripling of Valero’s Average Annual Profits
Santa Monica, CA -- Valero, California’s fourth largest oil refiner, reported $852 million in profits from oil refining in California in 2015, blowing past prior years’ profits by treating drivers who buy California gasoline as cash cows, Consumer Watchdog said today.
New Study Shows Too Many Insured Patients Are Not Covered, Rate Regulation Needed to Protect California Policyholders from Crushing Medical Debt
Santa Monica, CA – A Kaiser Family Foundation/New York Times survey showing that one-in-five working-age Americans ran into serious financial difficulties trying to pay medical bills despite being insured is yet more evidence that California needs health insurance rate regulation, Consumer Watchdog said today.