Vaccinations generally benefit society. If kids are not vaccinated because their parents won't allow it, the kids may become ill as a result (of course), and the kids may also infect other people. Should parents be held liable for injuries to others caused by exposure to their unvaccinated kids? Liability would not only compensate the […]
Author Archives: Brian Wolfman
Former Freedom of Information Act litigator and now law prof Margaret Kwoka has been writing articles on the Act. Read Margaret's most recent: Unconstrained Deference, Chenery, and FOIA. Here's the abstract: Litigation fails adequately to check agency secrecy decisions under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). To vindicate the public’s right to know what its […]
by Richard Bahrenburg (guest poster) When the day at work seems to drag and the day seems never ending, along comes a meme to cheer you up. A successful meme is a perfect mix of great photographic timing and clever word choice. Although many meme creating websites exist, not many people know that there may […]
by Brian Wolfman Last April, the Supreme Court decided Genesis HealthCare v. Symczyk, which held that an opt-in collective action brought under the Fair Labor Standard Act was moot on the assumption that an unaccepted offer from the defendant to the lead plaintiff of "complete relief" mooted the lead plaintiff's individual claim. (The Court made […]
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by Brian Wolfman As we've explained in a series of recent posts, in Carrera v. Bayer, the Third Circuit reversed a grant of class certification on the ground that the class wasn't "ascertainable." Among other things, the panel said that the class of purchasers of an over-the-counter weight-loss product had not shown that it would be […]
As Allison explained, the Third Circuit's recent Carrera decision puts consumer class actions in jeopardy, and so the plaintiff has sought hearing en banc. Public Citizen has now moved, with the parties' consent, to file this amicus brief.
As the Blog of the Legal Times explains: Continuing its crackdown on companies that provide debt settlement services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today announced that a payment processing company will pay $1.376 million to settle allegations that it collected illegal up-front fees from consumers. The CFPB said Tacoma, Wash.-based Meracord LLC helped debt-relief service […]
That's the question addressed by law professor Linda Simard in her article A View from Within the Fortune 500: An Empirical Study of Negative Value Class Actions and Deterrence. Here is the abstract: This paper takes a look inside the Fortune 500 to analyze the deterrent effect of negative value class actions. The study focuses […]
Guest post by Daniel Colbert (2L, Georgetown Law) How does the shutdown affect consumers? The short answer is that the shutdown likely won’t hurt consumers as much as it will hurt government employees, Head Start students, and panda-cam enthusiasts, but, still, it will put a significant damper on the government’s ability to protect consumers. Here […]