About Consumer Watchdog
Consumer Watchdog (formerly The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights [FTCR]) is a nationally recognized consumer group that has been fighting corrupt corporations and crooked politicians since 1985. Over the years, Consumer Watchdog has saved Americans billions of dollars and improved countless peoples' lives by speaking out on behalf of patients, ratepayers and policyholders. Big Business has an endless amount of money and thousands of lobbyists working everyday to protect and increase their profits - no matter who it hurts. We get in their way and work to protect and improve the lives of American consumers and taxpayers.
Watch the speeches from our 7th annual Rage For Justice Dinner on September 26, 2009.
Read about our recent victories and goals by viewing this PDF of our brochure.
See a list of our recent victories or download a more extensive list of Consumer Watchdog accomplishments.
Consumer Watchdog is a non-profit, non-partisan group and we depend upon the support of people like you. Please donate today.
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About Our Staff:
Harvey Rosenfield, Founder
As the Foundation's founder, Harvey Rosenfield is one of the nation's foremost consumer advocates. Trained as a public interest lawyer, Rosenfield authored Proposition 103 and organized the campaign that led to its passage by California voters in 1988 despite over $80 million spent in opposition (still a record).
He has co-authored groundbreaking initiatives on HMO reform and utility rate deregulation (Proposition 9, 1998). Rosenfield is the author of the book, Silent Violence, Silent Death: The Hidden Epidemic of Medical Malpractice. (Essential Books, 1994).
Rosenfield, who established Consumer Watchdog in 1985, has worked for the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Congress, in private practice, as a staff attorney for Ralph Nader's Public Citizen Congress Watch and as the Program Director for the California Public Interest Research Group (CalPIRG).
Rosenfield graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College and obtained a joint Law and Masters degree in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.
Jamie Court, President
Consumer Watchdog's President is an award-winning and nationally recognized consumer advocate. Court is the author of Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom And What You Can Do About It (Tarcher/Putnam, June 2003). The Los Angeles Times writes, "Crisply written and lucidly argued, 'Corporateering' will certainly strike a chord with those concerned about the erosion of their rights and looking for tips on how to fight back." (www.corporateering.org) Court is co-author of Making A Killing: HMOs and the Threat To Your Health (Common Courage Press, 1999) — which Publisher's Weekly says is "one of the most powerful indictments of the managed care industry." (www.makingakilling.org)
The Los Angeles Times calls Court "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."
Court helped to pioneer the HMO patients' rights movement in the United States, sponsoring successful laws in California and aiding them elsewhere. He has also led major corporate campaigns to reform insurers, banks, oil companies, utilities and political practices. Court is a regular commentator on National Public Radio's "Marketplace" program and on the Los Angeles Times op-ed page.
Court has also worked as an advocate for the homeless and as a community organizer. He has a degree in history from Pomona College.
Douglas Heller, Executive Director
Consumer Watchdog’s Executive Director Douglas Heller is one of the nation’s leading experts on, and critics of, the insurance industry. Heller is also recognized as a vocal critic of political corruption and corporate influence in government. He has led legislative, regulatory and public education campaigns related to insurance and energy issues, whistleblower protections and political accountability.
Heller has authored numerous reports on issues such as energy deregulation, medical malpractice and insurance industry low-balling. He has been a participant in several insurance and consumer oriented boards and panels and has testified before Congress and several state legislatures.
Heller spearheaded the grassroots campaign for new rules implementing Prop 103’s requirement that auto insurance rates be based on people’s driving records and not their ZIP codes, and continues to successfully battle back insurance company campaigns to overturn consumer protections. He led the 2001 lobbying effort against a legislative bailout of California electric utilities. Through both advocacy work and community outreach, Heller has been the state’s consumer leader in the effort to implement and expand the nation’s first low-cost auto insurance program for low-income motorists.
Prior to advocacy work, Heller was a community organizer, training and managing volunteers. After receiving his B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, Heller spent two years as a public school teacher in rural Louisiana.
Pamela Pressley, Litigation Director
Consumer Watchdog's Litigation Director, Pamela Pressley has headed up Consumer Watchdog's legal advocacy and regulatory efforts since 1999. Pressley has served as lead counsel in challenges to insurance industry rate hike proposals resulting in savings to California policyholders of $1.7 billion since 2003.
Additionally, Pressley has led Consumer Watchdog's efforts to enforce Proposition 103's mandates to protect California insurance policyholders against discriminatory practices and premium overcharges, including through rulemaking proceedings before the California Department of Insurance and court actions. Pressley has also authored numerous appellate briefs and presented oral argument in cases seeking to enforce Proposition 103 and California’s consumer protection laws. Currently, she is prosecuting an enforcement action against Mercury Insurance for its practice of charging illegal brokers fees and is leading a court action against the Department of Managed Health Care seeking an order requiring the agency to order health care plans to cover medically necessary treatment for autism.
Pressley received her B.A. in Sociology from UCLA and her J.D. from Pepperdine University School of Law. Before joining Consumer Watchdog, Pressley worked for CALPIRG as its Consumer Attorney and as a staff attorney for the Center for Law in the Public Interest, a non-profit, public interest law firm specializing in consumer, environmental, and civil rights advocacy and litigation.
Jerry Flanagan, Health Care Advocate
Jerry Flanagan is Consumer Watchdog's lead advocate on health care reform and personal privacy issues and is recognized as one of California's leading analysts of legislative efforts to address those issues.
In the last year, Flanagan has led an effort to expose the illegal practice of health insurers retroactively canceling coverage and led a successful national campaign to stop federal legislation to expand "junk insurance" that does not provide real protections when patients get sick. Flanagan contributed to an exposé on junk insurance by PBS' national program "NOW" which can be viewed on our website.
Flanagan recently organized two train trips to Canada to promote national prescription drug bulk purchasing to reduce the price of prescription drugs. The two three-day Consumer Watchdog "Rx Express" train trips resulted in 300 television appearances with a cumulative Nielsen audience of 65 million viewers, as well as 70 newspaper articles and more than 100 radio interviews. A documentary on the Rx Express, Riding the Rails, may be viewed on our website.
Prior to joining Consumer Watchdog, Flanagan wrote and won passage of one of the nation's strongest HMO accountability measures, which was signed into law in New Jersey on July 30, 2001. Flanagan received a BA in Social/Cultural Anthropology and in Rhetoric from the University of California, Berkeley.
Carmen Balber, Washington, D.C. Director
Carmen Balber is the director of Consumer Watchdog's new Washington, D.C. office, and its eyes, ears and voice on national public policy. She is also point person for research and advocacy that exposes the corrupting influence of cash and corporation on politicians. She coordinates Consumer Watchdog's public education efforts on medical malpractice and is a legislative advocate on issues ranging from financial system and healthcare reform to protecting the civil justice system and corporate accountability.
Balber is a recognized political reform expert and a consistent critic of special interest political influence and attempts by politicians to skirt campaign and ethics laws. Her exposure of corporate funding for exotic overseas junkets have led to new rules on politicians' travel and luxury spending Through media outreach, citizen organizing and public education, Balber ran the campaigns to pass the nation's strongest conflict of interest protection, the Oaks Project's Taxpayer Protection Acts, in five cities across California. Balber coordinated citizen organizing efforts in Consumer Watchdog's successful grassroots campaign to block a legislative utility bailout in 2001, including leading a three-week volunteer lobbying effort in Sacramento at the end of the 2001 legislative session.
Before joining the Oaks Project and Consumer Watchdog, Balber served as Assistant Canvass Director for the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (COPIRG). She holds a B.A. in Politics from Pomona College.
Todd M. Foreman, Staff Attorney
As part of Consumer Watchdog's Legal Project, Foreman's work focuses primarily on challenging property and casualty insurance rates at the California Department of Insurance, and he assists in Consumer Watchdog's efforts to protect consumers through public interest lawsuits.
Prior to attending law school, Foreman worked for the State PIRGs as a campus organizer, citizen outreach director and lead organizer; directed a grassroots environmental political action committee; and served as the lead consumer lobbyist against electric deregulation in Arkansas.
While at the UCLA School of Law, Foreman served as the Chief Managing Editor of both the UCLA Law Review and the UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy. After law school and before joining Consumer Watchdog, Foreman worked in private practice as a civil litigator.
Foreman received his B.S. in Interdisciplinary Social Science from Florida State University and his J.D. from UCLA School of Law, with concentrations in Critical Race Studies and Public Interest Law and Policy.
Naomi Seligman, Director of Public Affairs
Ms. Seligman has worked extensively as a communications professional, developing and managing cutting-edge media and outreach strategies for federal officials, start-ups and high-profile nonprofit organizations. She has played a pivotal role in ending the careers of some of the most corrupt members of Congress, exposing conservative misinformation in the media, and shining the light on rampant wrongdoing in presidential administrations.
From messaging to strategy development to swift implementation, the hard-hitting communications operations she has crafted, from the ground up, have penetrated news cycles at every national media outlet over the past 15 years. Ms. Seligman has directed events such as the 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington and designed winning campaigns for dozens of lawsuits against government agencies including litigation over the illegal revealing of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson.
Organizations she has worked with include Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), Media Matters for America and the Violence Policy Center.
Kent A. McInnis, Jr., Director of Online Advocacy
Kent McInnis comes to Consumer Watchdog after spending 8 years as a designer and art director in the world of commercial advertising. He has worked for industries such as entertainment, automotive, banking, computer technology, recruitment and corporate communications. Prior to that, Kent spent several years working in both the education and mental health fields for children as well as the elderly.
Kent has volunteered his time and skills to various issues, including fundraising efforts for a nationally recognized battered women's shelter, and movement & art therapy for abused children. Kent has a bachelor's degree in Fine Art from the University of Illinois, and continues that practice in a range of digital mediums including experimental photography, collage and video performance.
John M. Simpson, Stem Cell Project Director
John M. Simpson is a veteran journalist who held top editing positions at international, national and community newspapers. Most recently he was executive editor of Tribune Media Services International, a syndication company. He was previously deputy editor of USA Today and editor of its international edition.
Simpson taught journalism at Dublin City University in Ireland, and consulted for The Irish Times and The Gleaner in Jamaica. He served as president of the World Editors Forum. Recently he wrote Consumer Watchdog's report, "Affordability, Accessibility & Accountability in California Stem Cell Research." His op-ed articles have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and the San Jose Mercury News, the Sacramento Bee, and the Wisconsin State Journal.
Simpson holds a B.A. in philosophy from Harpur College of SUNY Binghamton and was a Gannett Fellow at the Center for Asian and Pacific Studies at the University of Hawaii. He has an M.A. in Communication Management from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication.
Judy Dugan, Research Director
Judy Dugan concentrates as an advocate on health care reforms, oil industry issues and telecommunications. She also writes and edits foundation publications and conducts media outreach.
A former Deputy Editorial Page Editor for the Los Angeles Times, Dugan was the editor of a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on California government in 2004. She earlier held positions with the Times including Assistant Op-Ed Editor and Voices Editor.
Before joining the Los Angeles Times, Dugan was an editor and reporter for United Press International in Washington D.C. and Chicago from 1977 to 1988.
Dugan was also a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines and a small-business owner in North Conway, New Hampshire, but now she's sticking with California, and Consumer Watchdog.
Mark Reback, Advocate/Researcher/Office Manager
Mark Reback has been with Consumer Watchdog for over eight years, providing the advocacy and legal departments with research support, following the money trails from special interests to politicians, as well as being the primary contact with members of the press. In addition to handling the day to day administrative work, Reback also helps maintain the organization's various websites, is a frequent blogger on those sites, and is responsible for supervising Consumer Watchdog's consumer complaint program, helping members of the public looking for consumer assistance.
In his life outside Consumer Watchdog, Reback has been a long-time volunteer with TreePeople, an environmental non-profit based in Los Angeles, and is being honored this year with TreePeople's Volunteer Leader Award at their annual gala. Reback is also an accomplished drummer/musician, who has recorded/performed/toured with a variety of bands, artists & projects. His music has appeared in the MTV television shows "The Hills" and "The Real World", along with independent films such as "Hack!" and "The Job". He is currently working on his own compositions, and does studio and live performance session work as well. Reback holds a B.A. in Business - Marketing from Colorado State University.
Carmen Aguado, Legal Assistant
Carmen Aguado provides research and administrative support to Consumer Watchdog's legal team. She works with patients and consumers
who have brought their complaints to Consumer Watchdog and coordinates Consumer Watchdog’s review of California insurance company rate hike requests. In addition to her work at Consumer Watchdog, Aguado studies law at the University of Loyola School of Law.
Prior to joining Consumer Watchdog, Aguado worked as an advocate for children in the foster care system as a law clerk intern with the Children's Law Center. While attending a program at London School of Economics, she served as a research assistant to a Member of Parliament, preparing him for meetings with the Prime Minister and developing policy positions on issues related to children and education. Aguado received a B.A. in Political Science from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.
Contact us at: admin@consumerwatchdog.org
