This article by Amy Goldstein describes "an emerging mosaic of evidence that, nearly a decade after it became one of the most polarizing health-care laws in U.S. history, the ACA is making some Americans healthier — and less likely to die."
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
Read this post by law prof Adam Levitin titled "FDIC and OCC Race to Court to Defend 120.86% Interest Rate Small Business Loan." It's not a pretty thing our federal regulators are doing. Here's an excerpt from Adam's post: FDIC and OCC filed an amicus brief in the district court in an obscure small business bankruptcy case […]
In May, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau proposed new Fair Debt Collection Practices Act rules. In this op-ed, Jennifer Wagner (of Mountain State Justice) and Linda Frame (of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy) explain why the CFPB's proposed rules, issued under a law meant to curb debt-collection harassment, actually authorize debt-collection harassment. […]
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a staff report on class-action notices, redress methods, claims rates, and check-cashing rates based on the agency's survey of the results in 149 consumer class actions. The FTC has put together this home page on the report, which contains links to related information. Consistent with other data and anecdotal […]
That's the title of this piece in The Hill by law prof Lauren Willis. WIllis's bio notes that "[s]he is a leading critic of the use of financial education, disclosures, and 'nudges' (default settings) in consumer policy-making." Willis's Hill piece applies that critique to the regulatory approach of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under the direction […]
The Ninth Circuit today issued its decision in Animal Legal Defense Fund v. USDA. Here's the court's summary of the decision: The panel reversed in part and affirmed in part the district court’s dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction of plaintiffs’ action against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, alleging claims under the Freedom of […]
Law prof Adam Levitin has written The Fast and the Usurious: Putting the Brakes on Auto Lending Abuses. Here is the abstract: The car loan market is rife with consumer abuses: inflated pricing, discriminatory lending, and a variety of deceptions and scams. These abuses all stem from the dealer-centric nature of the auto finance market […]
Yesterday, in Davis v. Oasis Legal Finance Operating Company, the Eleventh Circuit struck down contractual forum-selection and class-action-waiver clauses as contrary to public policy. In Davis, a class of borrowers sued lenders, claiming that their loan agreements violated Georgia usury laws. The lenders sought to tank the case on the basis of contractual forum-selection and […]
The Eleventh Circuit has just held in Salcedo v. Hanna that, under the circumstances pleaded there, a plaintiff who received one unsolicited text message lacked Article III standing to sue under Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The court relied on the Supreme Court's decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), and maintained […]
The Ninth Circuit has held, in Dorman v. Charles Schwab, that ERISA claims (brought in court in a class action) can be forced out of court and into individual arbitration through an arbitration clause in an amendment to an ERISA 401(k) plan forced on Schwab's employees. Here's how the Ninth Circuit's informal summary explains the […]