Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Survey finds 48% of Americans would be embarrassed to say they signed a contract without reading it.

The survey was conducted by the Goldberg Law Group. Only 16% of Americans say they read every word of a contract. I very much doubt it’s even that high. Almost certainly some of the people who said they read every word were too embarrassed to say they didn’t.  For example, when I polled consumer financial […]

Teaching Consumer Law hotel deadline extended to May 19, plus former FTC commissioner Slaughter to speak

Here’s the latest announcement: The UC Berkeley Center for Consumer Law & Economic Justice and the Alexander Blewett III School of Law at the University of Montana are proud to present the fourteenth biennial international Teaching Consumer Law Conference. We are also excited to announce that this conference will constitute the first-ever North American (and Caribbean/Central American) […]

Federal Roundup judge calls class action settlement filthy and mindboggling

So Amanda Bronstad reports at Law.com in Federal Roundup Judge Refuses to Step Into ‘Mind-Boggling’ $7.25B Class Settlement. Excerpt: [Judge] Chhabria said, “You have a meeting with the judge on the day you filed it, a prearranged meeting with the judge on the day you filed it. You say it was in open court, but it […]

Upcoming conference on the future of consumer protection

On May 14 – 15 at George Mason’s Antonin Scalia Law School’s Institute for Consumer Financial Choice. More information here. Here’s some of what appears there: The Future of Consumer Financial Protection: A Two-Day FTC/ICFC Colloquium on the 5th Anniversary of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law The first afternoon’s registration begins at 11:45 and a […]

Arbitrator’s decision relied on nonexistent cases, suggesting AI use

Story here. It was in Canada. I suppose it was inevitable given how many others have relied on AI-hallucinated citations without checking. I suspect it has happened in the US as well, though perhaps without anyone knowing. Of course, if arbitrators don’t write opinions but merely ask AI questions and don’t verify the cites, no […]

Register for the Teaching Consumer Conference by May 15; reserve a room in the hotel block by May 2

Here are the speakers scheduled to appear at the moment: Adelina Acuña (UC Berkeley) Craig Cowie (University of Montana) Prentiss Cox (University of Minnesota Law School) Lesley Fair (George Washington University) Jeff Gentes (Yale Law School) Ryan Marquez (University of Houston Law Center) Ted Mermin (UC Berkeley) Andy Milz (Temple University Beasley School of Law) Robert Murphy (University of Virginia School of Law) James […]

Maryland enacts anti-surveillance pricing bill

Text available here. It’s believed to be the first law banning surveillance pricing in the country (New York has a law requiring that any use of algorithmic pricing be disclosed). The law is limited to larger grocery stores and delivery services. It follows a December story by Consumer Reports that Instacart was using surveillance pricing […]