Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Web Privacy Census Updated

Ibrahim Altaweel of Good Research, Nathan Good, also of Good Research, and Chris Jay Hoofnagle of Berkeley have posted their updated Web Privacy Census, Technology Science 2015121502, Online. Here is the abstract: Most people may believe that online activities are tracked more pervasively now than they were in the past. In 2011, we started surveying […]

Jeffrey Davis Paper Compares US and Australian Credit-Granting Law

Jeffrey Davis of Florida has written Regulating for the First Time the Decision to Grant Consumer Credit: A Look at the First Steps Taken by the United States and Australia.  Here is the abstract: In this Article, I discuss the changes in three consumer-credit realms. First, I compare the Australian regime applicable to all forms […]

More on Debt Collection and Arbitration

by Jeff Sovern Richard posted a link last week to the Times article about how debt collectors first sue in court and then when consumers sue them, use arbitration clauses to block the consumer law suit.  Today the Times published four letters responding to the article, including mine. I want to comment on two of […]

Mark Budnitz on the History of the National Consumer Law Center

Mark Elliott Budnitz of Georgia State has written The National Consumer Law Center From Its Birth to 2013.  Here is the abstract: The article describes, analyzes and evaluates the role played by the National Consumer Law Center, a public interest law firm dedicated to promoting the legal rights of low income consumers, in the development […]

A Reply to Alan Kaplinsky’s Comment on My Claim about the Industry’s Supposed Love of Arbitration

by Jeff Sovern In a recent American Banker essay, I argued that businesses praise arbitration not because they genuinely value it, but because it enables them to block class actions.  I said that for two reasons: first, that if businesses truly believe arbitration is superior to litigation, as they say they do, they should prefer […]