In this Atlantic piece, Derek Thompson helps expose the farcical Trump tax cut for what it is: Corporate stock buybacks in the first 6 weeks of 2018 "reached historical high[s], totaling about $170 billion. That’s 28 times larger than the total value of end-of-year [worker] bonuses that were [wrongly] credited to the corporate tax bill."
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
I know little of economics but I've frequently said to myself (and occasionally to colleagues and clients) that, all other things equal, the defendant generally benefits from delay, and the plaintiff, wanting to see some cash, rarely so. But what do I know? You consumer litigators out there might find some actual enlightenment on the […]
In today's decision in Hagy v. Demers & Adams, the Sixth Circuit held that a bare allegation that a debt collector's letter that fails to say it's "from a debt collector" as required by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692e(11), is not an article III injury under the Supreme Court's decision […]
The decision is Tatis v. Allied Interstate. Applying the "least sophisticated consumer" standard and following decisions of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh circuits, the court summarizes its decision this way: This appeal arises under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act …. The question presented is whether a collection letter sent to collect a time-barred debt that […]
Law prof Cynthia Estlund has written on that topic in The Black Hole of Mandatory Arbitration. Here's the abstract: What is the impact of mandatory arbitration agreements (MAAs) in employment? It is now several decades since the Supreme Court gave a green light to employers’ imposition of broad MAAs that foreclose litigation over nearly all federal […]
In this article, Reuters reporter Patrick Rucker explains that "Mick Mulvaney, [Trump's interim] head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has pulled back from a full-scale probe of how Equifax Inc failed to protect the personal data of millions of consumers, according to people familiar with the matter."
In Devlin v. Scardelletti, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a class-action objector may appeal a district court's approval of a class-action settlement under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23 without first intervening. Today, the California Supreme Court rejected that approach in Hernandez v. Restoration Hardware for class actions in California state courts. The court's ruling was premised […]
That's the title of this Chicago-Sun Times editorial.
Law prof Ted Afield has written Compromising Student Loans, which explains why, in Afield's view, our student-loan programs do not properly assess a borrower's ability to pay back the loan. He also proposes a repayment program that he thinks would help borrowers who presently are unable to pay. Here is the abstract: Access to higher education […]
And would correcting these inefficiencies reduce income and wealth inequality? Read Consumer Law As Tax Alternative by Rory Van Loo to try to find out. Here's the abstract: The law and economics paradigm has traditionally emphasized tax and transfer as the best way to achieve distributional goals. This Article explores an alternative. Well-designed consumer laws—defined as the […]