John Van Alst of the National Consumer Law Center has written this comprehensive report entitled Time to Stop Racing Cars: The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Buying and Using a Car. Here is the executive summary: For many in America, a car provides not only physical mobility but also economic mobility. Yet for years, […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
This study published today by the National Bureau of Economic Research finds that a 10% increase in the minimum wage and the Earned Income Tax Credit has a dramatic impact on the number of non-drug-related suicides among men and women without college degrees. Read this article about the study.
Take a good look at this easy-to-read, informative essay by law prof Heidi Li Feldman in the Harvard Law Review blog. In Why the Latest Ruling in the Sandy Hook Shooting Litigation Matters, Feldman explains that, among other things, the Connecticut Supreme Court's recent decision in Soto v. Bushmaster Firearms (concerning the prospect of liability for […]
Myriam Gilles and Gary Friedman have written Rediscovering the Issue Class in Mass Tort MDLs. Here's the abstract: For the past twenty-plus years, MDL transferee judges have essentially regarded the class device as unavailable as they struggle to organize masses of tort actions sent their way by the JPML. Even the badges and incidents of […]
Read this new report by U.S. PIRG about how banks market debit cards on college campuses — cards that come with significant fees. The gist is that banks pay colleges big bucks via "paid marketing agreements" that give the banks the right to market student card accounts that will receive certain funds, such as student […]
Law prof Maya Steinitz has written Follow the Money? A Proposed Approach for Disclosure of Litigation Finance Agreements. Here is the abstract: Litigation finance is the new and fast-growing practice by which a non-party funds a plaintiff’s litigation either for-profit or for some other motivation. Some estimates placed the size of the litigation finance market […]
Read Michele Singletary's column about the scam here. The allegations against Office Depot were not pretty, and, as SIngletary explains, the Federal Trade Commission has put an end to the fraudulent scheme. Here's the gist of it: Although not admitting any wrongdoing, Office Depot and California-based Support.com have agreed to pay $35 million to settle the […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued its 2018 Consumer Response Annual Report, which, as its name (sorta) suggests, reports on consumer complaints to the agency. The CFPB received about 330,000 complaints in 2018. The report discusses consumer complaints and the CFPB's response to them in 13 categories: credit or consumer reporting, debt collection, mortgages, […]
This article by Kenneth Harney explains the new standards: First-time and move-up home buyers with heavy debt loads, low credit scores and small down payments face a daunting new mortgage hurdle: The Federal Housing Administration is toughening its underwriting standards. Large numbers of applications could be turned down in the coming months as a result. Industry […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau seeks applications for spots on its advisory committees: To be sure that we hear from a variety of experts with diverse viewpoints, we set up the Consumer Advisory Board, the Community Bank Advisory Council, the Credit Union Advisory Council, and the Academic Research Council. These advisory committees provide us with […]