Jerry Flanagan

Jerry Flanagan is Consumer Watchdog’s Litigation Director.  Flanagan leads Consumer Watchdog’s litigation efforts in the areas of health insurance coverage and access to treatments, internet privacy, the California Public Records Act, and First Amendment issues. He has 25 years experience working in public interest and health care policy, legislation and litigation. 

Flanagan has spearheaded efforts to address discrimination against those with HIV and other serious illnesses in the era of the Affordable Care Act (aka “Obamacare”). 

Flanagan was counsel of record in a case before the United States Supreme Court where he and other Consumer Watchdog counsel represented plaintiffs living with HIV in a suit against CVS for discrimination, including CVS’s failure to provide medically appropriate dispensing of HIV medications and access to necessary counseling. After Consumer Watchdog’s unanimous win in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, CVS petitioned to the high court for review. Review was granted and the case was briefed, but CVS unexpectedly dropped the case, leaving the earlier victory intact. Doe v. CVS Pharmacy, Inc. (9th Cir. 2020) 982 F.3d 1204, cert. granted in part, (2021) 141 S. Ct. 2882, and cert. dismissed sub nom. CVS Pharmacy, Inc. v. Doe, One (2021) 142 S. Ct. 480.

Flanagan is an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School of Los Angeles, where he previously taught the class “Health Insurance Regulation: Law, Policy & Politics.”

Flanagan exposed the illegal practice of health insurers retroactively canceling coverage and authored a law journal article underscoring the need for reform in health insurance rescission law, Healthy State of Mind: The Role of Intent in Health Plan Rescissions, 43 Loy. L.A. L. Rev. 291 (2009).  An “intentional misrepresentation” standard for coverage rescissions, advocated by the article, was adopted in the ACA.

Prior to joining Consumer Watchdog, Flanagan drafted and won passage of one of the nation’s strongest HMO accountability measure, which was signed into law in New Jersey in 2001.

Flanagan received a B.A. in Social/Cultural Anthropology and Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley and his law degree from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles. At Loyola Flanagan was a Note and Comment Editor on the Loyola Law Review, and he graduated Magna Cum Laude and is a member of the Order of the Coif, Sayre Macneil Scholars Program, St. Thomas More Law Honor Society, and Alpha Sigma Nu Honor Society.

Flanagan was admitted to the California Bar in 2010.

Jerry Flanagan

KNBC-LA (NBC) – Los Angeles, CA: New Developments in LADWP Overbilling Scandal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWaNL99S0CM Consumer Watchdog asked a federal court to allow the public to see hundreds of pages of sealed FBI records on its investigation of the...

Consumer Watchdog and the Los Angeles Times Petition Federal Court to Release FBI Warrants Related to LA City Attorney and LA DWP Corruption 

 Los Angeles, CA -- Yesterday afternoon the non-profit Consumer Watchdog and the Los Angeles Times petitioned a federal court in Los Angeles to release 33 FBI...

KCRA-SAC (NBC) – Sacramento, CA: Struggle To Get State Records

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTQ_NemK5Lw CW litigation director, Jerry Flanagan, says unless there is the threat of public scrutiny, you have no way of knowing that the investigation was...

KGO-SF (ABC) – San Francisco, CA: Consumer Watchdog Calls Attorney General to Investigate Clearview AI For Violating State Law

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdFNRnar4O0 Clearview AI scrapes images off the internet, often from social media sites, then sells them to public agencies and potentially foreign companies to make...

One of the Largest HIV Privacy Breach Payments Arriving in Mailboxes This Week

Los Angeles, CA – Checks for $1,821.58 were mailed late last week to hundreds of Californians whose confidential medical information—including their HIV status—was allegedly accessed and...

Consumer Alert: Clearview AI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etH6N5TnkHw&feature=youtu.be Visit https://cppa.ca.gov/webapplications/complaint to speak out against Clearview AI's privacy violations, and tell the CPPA that you do not agree to have your face be...

CA Attorney General and Leading Consumer Privacy Agency Urged to Prevent “Clear and Present Danger” to Privacy by Clearview AI Facial Recognition Software

Los Angeles, CA - Clearview AI’s facial recognition software “represents a clear and present danger to our societal norms and our privacy,” Consumer Watchdog...

CVS Acted With “Deliberate Indifference” When It Implemented An Rx Drug Program That Discriminates Against People Living With HIV

Los Angeles, CA - CVS acted intentionally when it implemented a drug program that discriminates against people living with HIV, according to Consumer Watchdog...

Newsletter

To be updated with all the latest news, press releases and special reports.

Don't miss

Responding to Clearview AI’s Comments Concerning Consumer Watchdog’s Report on Clearview AI’s Abuses of Our Privacy Rights

In the wake of the publishing of Consumer Watchdog’s report on...

Consumer Watchdog Report Shows How Wall Street AI Could Cause a Financial Crisis And How it Can Be Stopped

Wall Street banks are seeking patents and trademarks for a range of uses, with JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley seeking AI patents and trademarks for investment, analyzing securities, and predicting stock prices and portfolios.
Support Consumer Watchdog