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.
Ratepayers and Consumer Advocates Urge LA Mayor and City Attorney To Pull Back Anti-Consumer DWP Over-Billing Settlement
Los Angeles, CA -- Consumer Watchdog and overbilled ratepayers today urged Los Angeles City leaders to immediately fix or withdraw a “breathtakingly anti-consumer settlement agreement” over tens of millions of dollars in overbilling at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP).
Consumer Watchdog Reports On Historic Gap Between Wholesale Prices and Retail Prices At Gas Pump To Expose California Gas Price Manipulation To Energy Commission
Sacramento, CA -- Consumer Watchdog testified Tuesday that the gap between the retail price paid at the California gas pump and the wholesale price of gas traded within the oil industry has never been greater – signaling gouging of the consumer.
Big Oil Gives CA Energy Commission Finger, Refuses To Testify Tomorrow On $6 Billion Consumer Gas Gouge
Santa Monica, CA — The oil industry is refusing to produce a single representative to answer questions tomorrow on gasoline supplies and possible manipulation of gasoline prices before advisors to the California Energy Commission, Consumer Watchdog said today. It’s the second rebuff to government.
US Supreme Court Reveals Little In Oral Argument On DIRECTV Case
Our attorneys' report from the US Supreme Court is that this morning’s oral argument didn’t reveal which way the majority was leaning in Imburgia v. DIRECTV.
Consumer Watchdog Warns Exxon Cannot Avoid Accountability for February Explosion Through Offloading Torrance Refinery
Santa Monica, CA – ExxonMobil’s sale today of its Torrance Refinery may allow it to escape the state, but not culpability for the February 18 explosion or its subsequent coverups over its causes. That explosion injured four workers and endangered the community, and touched off a price spike that cost Californians $6 billion more for their gasoline than they would have paid otherwise.