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Victims of California wildfires said some law firms are making it more difficult for them to reject PG&E Corp.’s plan to exit bankruptcy than to accept it, creating a “chilling effect” for those who want to vote against the proposal, Bloomberg News reported. Nearly 80,000 people who lost homes, businesses or loved ones in blazes blamed on the utility’s equipment face a May 15 deadline to vote on a proposal that provides them with $13.5 billion in compensation. PG&E needs the support from two-thirds of wildfire victims who cast a ballot. The bias created by the law firms “erodes confidence in the outcome of the vote,” according to a court filing yesterday by the victims. Lawyers claiming to represent about 1,000 fire victims asked a judge assessing their damages for a “correction of those irregularities for the remainder of the voting period.” One law firm said on its social media platform that it intended to cast “yes” votes for clients and for victims to contact the firm if they disagree, according to the filing.

Eight men were sexually abused when they were Boy Scouts in Hawaii in the 1960s and 1970s, they alleged in a lawsuit filed Friday as the state's window closed on allowing child sex abuse claims that would have been barred under a statute of limitations, the Associated Press reported. Various states and Washington, D.C., extended or suspended statute of limitations to allow child sex abuse claims stretching back decades. In Hawaii, a window for filing old claims was first opened in 2012. It was reopened in 2018 and closed Friday. The lawsuit by the eight men now living in Hawaii, California, Oregon and Washington state also comes while attorneys urge potential victims to come forward as Boy Scouts of America works on its bankruptcy plan. The Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy protection in February in an effort to halt hundreds of individual lawsuits and create a huge compensation fund for men who were molested as youngsters decades ago by scoutmasters or other leaders.

Ratner Cos., the Vienna, Va.-based parent company of hair salon chains including the Hair Cuttery, Bubbles and Cielo, has filed for bankruptcy protection after closing more than 80 locations across the country in March, the Washington (D.C.) Business Journal reported. The company and related entities, including Creative Hairdressers Inc., filed for chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Greenbelt, Md., on Thursday. In court filings, the company listed less than $10 million in assets and between $10 million and $50 million in liabilities. The company is an apparent victim of the coronavirus pandemic, which forced it to shutter many of its locations. Coronavirus notices posted March 31 to the company's Hair Cuttery and Bubbles websites indicate the chains had hoped to reopen April 1, but "unfortunately, that will not be a reality." "Creative Hairdressers has been searching for a new financial partner for some time," according to a company statement. "The impact of the coronavirus on the business accelerated this process and is a strategic move to ensure the health and vitality of our company in the future." The bankruptcy filing also follows a pair of class-action lawsuits from a group of stylists against the company in U.S. District Court. The lawsuits, one filed April 7 in the District of New Jersey and the other filed April 20 in the Florida Middle District Court, claim the company violated fair wages laws because it didn't pay stylists and employees for the pay period due April 7. That pay period included the span between March 15 and March 21, when Ratner closed all of its retail operations, according to one of the lawsuits.

General Motors Co. yesterday won preliminary U.S. court approval of a $120 million settlement with owners who said defective ignition switches caused their vehicles to lose value, Reuters reported. U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman in Manhattan granted approval at a hearing conducted by phone. The accord would resolve the last major piece of litigation over GM ignition switches linked to vehicle stalls and air bags that failed to deploy, as well as 124 deaths. Final approval is still required, after owners are notified of their rights. Since 2014, the defect has led GM to recall more than 2.6 million Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Saturn vehicles, dating back more than a decade. The Detroit-based automaker has also paid more than $2.6 billion in penalties and settlements. GM would fund $70 million of the settlement, while a trust set up in connection with its 2009 bankruptcy would contribute $50 million. The automaker would pay the plaintiffs’ lawyers separately.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) called on private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners to pay for health insurance for Art Van Furniture workers who lost coverage after the Midwestern retailer shut down, Bloomberg News reported. Art Van filed for bankruptcy last month and told workers they would have 90 days of coverage as the retailer slowly sold off its stores. But as the new coronavirus spread, many states forced stores to shut down, turning the company’s liquidation into more of a fire sale. The company later told employees they would lose insurance about six weeks earlier than planned. Workers sent a letter on Tuesday asking Thomas H. Lee Partners, Art Van’s private equity owner, to restore their health coverage. Tlaib, who represents a district in Michigan that includes parts of Detroit, is the latest politician to call for more help for workers at bankrupt companies. Thomas H. Lee Partners bought Art Van and its real estate in 2017 from founder Art Van Elslander for $612.5 million, according to bankruptcy documents. The private equity firm did not make back its investment on that deal by the time of the liquidation. Tlaib was a sponsor of the House of Representatives version of the Stop Wall Street Looting Act introduced by Senator Elizabeth Warren last year. That bill would put private-equity firms on the hook for the debt of companies they buy and elevate worker claims in bankruptcy.

Art Van Furniture, the Midwestern furniture chain, originally told its employees last month that they’d be entitled to keep their coverage for 90 days as the company kept operating and started auctioning off its retail stores, Bloomberg News reported. Then the novel coronavirus spread and more states forced stores to shutter, turning the retailer’s slow liquidation into more of a fire sale. Workers learned their health benefits were getting cut off. Art Van’s workers sent a letter yesterday to the company’s private equity owner, Thomas H. Lee Partners, asking it to pay their health insurance for 90 days, and to create a fund for out-of-pocket costs. The employees’ trouble offers a sense of what might be coming for many struggling retailers. Stores are failing fast, leaving workers in many cases with no alternative but to lobby for compensation from owners, even as they push for broader legal and legislative protections, said Jack Raisner, a lawyer who often represents workers, including in the Art Van case. Art Van filed for bankruptcy in March, but weeks later it switched to a more accelerated liquidation. With its troubles mounting, the retailer terminated workers’ health benefits without the notice otherwise required by law. The U.S.’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires employers to give 60 days’ notice before mass layoffs. Some of the workers laid off in March filed a lawsuit in Art Van’s bankruptcy court citing the violation of the terms of the act.

New York state brought civil charges yesterday accusing Mallinckrodt Plc of insurance fraud for misrepresenting the safety and efficacy of its opioid drugs, leading to medically unnecessary prescriptions, Reuters reported. Governor Andrew Cuomo said the charges brought by New York’s Department of Financial Services are the first against a major opioid manufacturer in the regulator’s probe into entities that contributed to the nationwide opioid crisis. New York accused Mallinckrodt of overstating the benefits of long-term opioid treatment, downplaying the risks of addiction and abuse, and knowing its conduct would result in the payment of fraudulent insurance claims on unnecessary prescriptions. Mallinckrodt is the largest maker of generic opioids in the U.S. According to New York, it supplied more than 1 billion pills to about 5 million policyholders in the state from 2009 to 2019. The company was charged with violating two New York insurance laws, with civil penalties of up to $5,000 per violation.