The U.S. Supreme Court delivered a win on Monday to California consumer groups, who can go ahead with their price gouging lawsuit against energy providers. Evelyn Lombardo reports from Washington.
After the energy crisis of 2000, consumers sued private power companies for manipulating the energy market to keep prices high. Reliant Energy Services, one of the companies, filed lawsuits against state and foreign-owned utilities for doing the same thing.
The Justices put to rest a seven-year procedural battle over whether the case belonged in state or federal court.
San Diego attorney Leonard Simon says the decision prevents defendants from stalling.
Simon : Once a federal court determination is made in a situation like this -- that a case belonged in state court and should not have been transferred to federal court -- that that's the end of it.
But the long delay in this case has forced many consumers to settle with the power companies for much less than what they were owed.
From Capitol Hill, Evelyn Lombardo, KPBS News.
