Alan M. Mansfield, Esq.
Attorney Alan M. Mansfield, the founder of the Consumer Law Group of California, received his B.S. degree, cum laude, in Business Administration – Finance from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, in 1983 and his Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Denver School of Law in 1986. He is admitted to the bar of the State of California, to the United States District Courts for all Districts of California, and to the Third, Fifth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeal.
Mr. Mansfield has specialized in national consumer class action and public interest litigation since 1991, focusing on telecommunications and consumer privacy issues. He has been involved over the years in numerous significant matters, including the Joe Camel teen smoking case, Mangini v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (1994) 7 Cal. 4th 1057, and the DMV motor vehicle Smog Impact Fee refund case (Jordan v. Department of Motor Vehicles (1999) 75 Cal. App. 4th 449). Mr. Mansfield was previously responsible for several years for the consumer law group in the San Diego office of the largest class action firm in the United States, Coughlin Stoia Robbins Geller & Rudman. His clients include the public interest groups the Utility Consumers’ Action Network (“UCAN”) and the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.
Mr. Mansfield is a member of the American Bar Association, San Diego County Bar Association, Consumer Attorneys of California, and San Diego, Anti-trust Section of California Bar Association, and Federal Bar Association. Other positions in the legal community include:
- National Association of Consumer Advocates – Board of Directors (1996).
- Association of Business Trial Lawyers – Editor, ABTL Report (since 2004) and current member of Executive Committee; Program Co-chair, 2009 ABTL Annual Seminar
- Enright Inn of Court – Master
In 2007, Mr. Mansfield received the Service Award for Public Service By A Law Firm from the San Diego County Bar Association. This award from the SDCBA recognized his firm’s public service efforts in providing equal access to the law, including his work on the Garrett litigation as well as with the Salvation Army, and our training of JAG officers at the Naval Justice School in San Diego and at Camp Pendleton to provide them tools to assist military members in informally resolving local consumer law issues.
Mr. Mansfield has been appointed as lead counsel and litigated a variety of class and private Attorney General actions to successful resolution in both federal and state court, including:
- A class action involving billing customers for previously promised airtime concluded in a class action settlement that resulted in the ability of over 1 million customers to claim full reimbursement for the uncredited airtime (Nelson v. Virgin Mobile, Case No. 05-CV-1594-AJB (U.S. District Court, Southern District of California).
- An action involving the unauthorized billing of consumers for Internet dial-up service that resulted in full refunds of over $1 million, significant practice changes, and financial contributions to the California Consumer Protection Foundation (UCAN v. Prodigy Communications, San Diego Superior Court Case No. GIC 779435).
- A case challenging Sprint’s failure to provide a cancellation window when it imposed certain additional fees against customers in July 2003, resulting in a class-wide settlement returning Early Termination Fees that had been charged consumers, as well as improving certain disclosure practices (UCAN v. Sprint Spectrum LP, San Diego Superior Court Case No. GIC 814461).
- In UCAN v. PowerNet Global Telecommunications, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California, Case No. 06-cv-1773-H (RBB), where the action challenged a practice of charging a “Network Access Charge” as a tax when it was not, PowerNet agreed to recalculate and classify such fees and a class-wide resolution where current customers were able to obtain bill credits for a significant portion of such charges and former customers could obtain cash refunds or calling cards for such amounts, at the customers’ option.
- The firm also represented UCAN in an action before the California Public Utilities Commission involving billing for Early Termination Fees, resulting in a refund of over $18 million in fees to over 100,000 former Cingular Wireless customers (In Re Cingular Wireless, CPUC Case No. I.02-06-003).
Mr. Mansfield is the current editor of the ABTL Report, a quarterly newsletter for the San Diego Chapter of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers and on its Board of Governors.
He is currently a Lawyer Representative for the Southern District of California at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. In 2008 he made presentations to both the Inn of Court and the Southern District Judicial Conference on state and federal data breach notification laws and notification programs.