U.S. Judge Gary Feinerman of Chicago; one of the Good Guys

The state of Illinois presented Gary Scott Feinerman with a law license in 1991 after she graduated from Stanford University Law School.

The Office of Disciplinary Counsel has found Stacy guilty of the following misconduct.

In one matter, Judge Feinerman was assigned to preside over consolidated lawsuits that claimed “100 percent grated parmesan cheese” labels are misleading because the products contain cellulose and other ingredients. (Debra Cassens Weiss)

In dismissing this frivolous (BS) lawsuit, Feinerman said in his opinion that a reasonably intelligent person [plaintiff’s attorney excluded] would know that parmesan cheese is not pure cheese because it is stable at room temperature. Judge Feinerman went on to specifically state:

• “Cheese is a dairy product, after all, and reasonable consumers are well aware that pure dairy products spoil, grow blue, green, or black fuzz, or otherwise become inedible if left unrefrigerated for an extended period of time.”
• “Although ‘100 Percent Grated Parmesan Cheese’ might be interpreted as saying that the product is 100 percent cheese and nothing else, it also might be an assertion that 100 percent of the cheese is parmesan cheese, or that the parmesan cheese is 100 percent grated.”
• “Reasonable consumers would thus need more information before concluding that the labels promised only cheese and nothing more, and they would know exactly where to look to investigate—the ingredient list. Doing so would inform them that the product contained non-cheese ingredients.”

The deep-pocket defendants being pursued by the greedy plaintiff’s attorneys in this sham lawsuit were Kraft Heinz Co., Albertsons Companies, Supervalu Inc., Target Corp., Wal-Mart Stores Inc., ICCO-Cheese Co. and Publix Super Markets.

Kudos to Judge Feinerman for having the courage and fortitude to send these scamming plaintiff’s attorneys packing.

As we speak (September 2017), Judge Feinerman continues to sit as a U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern Disrict of Illinois in Chicago.