Author Archives: Brian Wolfman

“The CFPB Wants to Create an Arbitration Database. Companies Will Hate That.”

That's the name of this article by C. Ryan Barber (possibly behind a paywall). Here's an excerpt: When the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau expanded its public database to include narratives of negative customer experiences, banks such as Wells Fargo and other industry players worried about being named and shamed. Now, a new public database could be going up […]

CFPB director Richard Cordray’s prepared remarks on the agency’s new arbitration rule

CFPB director Richard Cordray's prepared remarks on the new arbitration rule: Thank you for joining us on this call. Today, we are announcing a final rule that prevents financial companies from using mandatory arbitration clauses to deny groups of consumers their day in court. A cherished tenet of our justice system is that no one, […]

“Health Insurance Coverage and Health — What the Recent Evidence Tells Us”

That's the name of this New England Journal of Medicine article by Benjamin D. Sommers, Atul A. Gawande, and Katherine Baicker. They looked carefully at the literature asking whether having health insurance improves health outcomes. The authors also looked at a range of variables, including the quality of insurance. Here are excerpts from of their conclusions: One question experts […]

Sarah Kliff on the CBO’s score of the Senate health care bill

Read health-care journalist Sarah Kliff's article titled Page 48 is the most important page in the CBO report. The whole thing is worth reading. Here's a key takeaway: The CBO report is a dense 49-page document that you can read here. But you can find its clearest explanation of the Senate bill on page 48. This is […]

Supreme Court holds that American Pipe class-action tolling rule does not apply to cases brought under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933

The decision is Calpers v. ANZ Securities. The vote is 5 to 4, with Justice Kennedy writing the majority opinion, and Justice Ginsburg writing the dissent. Skipping all its nuances, the American Pipe rule provides generally that the statute of limitations for absent class members is tolled from the filing of a class-action complaint until the […]

Deregulation of medical devices under Trump (and the republican Congress)

David Hilzenrath at the Project on Government Oversight reports here about what strikes me as a bunch of future disasters waiting to happen. An excerpt: When makers of medical devices learn that one of their products has malfunctioned in a way that could kill or seriously injure people, they are required to file a report with the […]

In rare move, feds reverse themselves on big arbitration case before the Supreme Court — that is, the Trump SG’s office takes a different position from the Obama SG’s office

I'm guessing that a lot of our readers already know about this. But if you don't, read about it here in Amy Howe's post at scotusblog. Here's an excerpt from her post: It is rare for the Office of the Solicitor General to change its position in a case before the Supreme Court after a change in […]