5. Legal Matters,, 1930-1979

Summary: Documents litigation and legal matters connected with the operation of Consumers' Research. Includes correspondence, briefs, newspaper and magazine clippings contracts, incorporation papers and by-laws, and workers compensation, fire and automobile insurance materials. Includes correspondence with Consumers' Research counsels Williams Consodine, Dorothy Kenyon, and Oscar Cox. Subjects include Consumers' Research's confidential restrictions, copyright law, Issac Goldman Printing Co. vs Consumers' Research, libel against Consumers' Research, legal status of Consumers' Research and Consumers Digest, Consumers' Research's right to criticize products, tax status, and trademarks including Consumers' Research's dispute with Consumers Union over format in 1957. Also extensive files on Consumers' Research's attempts to avoid paying unemployment insurance in several cases including that of Alice Evans and the New Jersey Unemployment Insurance Commission verses Consumers' Research (including materials relating to the operation of Consumers' Research). Consumers' Research's correspondence with William A. Consodine includes some materials relating Consumers' Research's suspicions that alleged communists were working for the government during World War II.

For other Consumers' Research related legal matters also see Technical File Automobile Engines and Parts for AAMCO Lawsuit; Technical File Battery & Batteries Additives (AD-X2 Controversy); Administrative Files: Books-Mack, Miller Candle Co. vs MacMillan Co. re Your Money's Worth; and Administrative Files: Subscription and Promotion for Early Discussion of Confidentiality Provisions for Becoming a Member of Consumers' Research. Also see Consumers' Research Strike file.