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.
FTC should proceed with case against Google
When you stare down a $220 billion corporation, it's hard not to blink. But if the Federal Trade Commission doesn't deliver on its ultimatum to Google that it settle its antitrust problems soon for real relief or face prosecution, then consumers will never get the open and unfettered online and mobile access to information they deserve.
Congressional Hearings Called For In Hyundai MPG Sticker Scandal
Washington, DC – Consumer Watchdog today called upon leaders of the House and Senate Commerce committees to hold hearings into the revelation by the EPA that for the first time in American history large numbers of vehicles carried window stickers with false MPG claims.
Political bloggers should reveal funding
Wednesday, the California Fair Political Practices Commission takes up the question of whether political bloggers should have to disclose who pays them to blog in political campaigns. Sacramento's consultant establishment, both on the left and the right, has been hiding behind free speech protections to propagandize and cut the legs out from under credentialed authorities on behalf of any interest group.
Karl Rove, Hyundai and Elizabeth Warren Can Go In “The Dog House†With Consumer Watchdog’s New Free App That Lets iPhone Users Create Meme-Like...
SANTA MONICA, CA – Consumer Watchdog’s new five-star rated app gives iPhone and iPad users a way to complain, stay informed and be engaged on the top consumer issues of the day. A popular feature, the “Consumer Watchdog Dog House,” allows consumers to take a photo with their phone and satirize or applaud a politician, company or product and share it with their networks.
Will the billionaires learn the rules of ballot measures?
Insurance companies learned a lesson election night in California: Don’t try to fool the voters or you’ll be the one looking foolish.
Thanks to your help voters saw through one insurance billionaire’s deceptive campaign and rejected Prop 33 with 55% opposed.
A Letter to the President Can Matter: Ours Changed Hyundai’s MPG Claims And Evened the Playing Field For US Carmakers
If you doubt that writing the White House can make a difference, just look at the letter my Consumer Watchdog colleague Judy Dugan and I wrote to the President in January calling for an audit of the inflated MPG claims for the Hyundai Elantra.
Consumer Watchdog Campaign: Mercury News Asked To Alert Subscribers to Dirty Trick By Prop 33 Backers; Paid E-mail Advertisement Looks Like Mercury News Endorses...
Santa Monica, CA – Consumer Watchdog Campaign today called upon the publisher of the San Jose Mercury News to send an email to subscribers correcting the record on a misleading paid advertisement sent out by email over the weekend which made it appear that the newspaper editorialized for Prop 33 when in fact it came out against it.