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 […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
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 […]
Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioner Robert Adler and law prof Andrew Popper have written The Misuse of Product Misuse: Victim Blaming at Its Worst. Here is the abstract: This paper addresses the legal consequences that surface when a consumer uses a product in a manner not specifically intended by that product's designer or manufacturer. If […]
Here is the opening of the New York Times article on Gottlieb's resignation: Scott Gottlieb, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, known for his aggressive efforts to regulate the tobacco and e-cigarette industries, said on Tuesday that he would resign at the end of the month.The reason he gave was family and his […]
This article by Stuart Singer discussed how one company has a program to help students pay off their student loans. According to the Federal Reserve, outstanding student-loan debt was $1.57 trillion in 2018, more than triple the $487 billion in 2006.