Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Timothy D. Lytton Book: Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety

Tim Lytton  at Georgia State has written Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety. Here's the blurb: Foodborne illness is a big problem. Wash those chicken breasts, and you’re likely to spread Salmonella to your countertops, kitchen towels, and other foods nearby. Even salad greens can become biohazards when toxic strains of E. coli inhabit the water […]

Did the AG-Credit Bureau Settlement Requiring Employees with Discretion to Review Consumer Disputes Change Things?

by Jeff Sovern Until 2015, when consumers submitted disputes to credit bureaus, the credit bureaus submitted the dispute to the creditor which had furnished the information, and if the creditor verified that the information was correct, the credit bureau reportedly would nearly always continue reporting the information in the consumer's credit report, despite the Fair […]

How often do elite law reviews publish consumer law articles: evidence from six journals

by Jeff Sovern I wanted to know if the law reviews in elite schools that teach consumer law have published more consumer law articles in the last five years than law reviews in elite schools that don’t offer the course.  Consequently, I asked a research assistant, Sara Krastins, to look at the articles published in […]

Odinet article on student debt, fintech, and discrimination

Christopher K. Odinet of Oklahoma has written The New Data of Student Debt, 92 Southern California Law Review (Forthcoming). Here is the abstract: Silicon Valley is increasingly setting its sights on student lending. Financial technology (fintech) firms such as SoFi, CommonBond, and Upstart are ever-expanding their online lending activities to help students finance or refinance […]

Prince & Schwarcz article on how AI is a game-changer for proxy discrimination

Anya Prince of Iowa and Daniel Schwarcz of Minnesota have written Proxy Discrimination in the Age of Artificial Intelligence and Big Data, Iowa Law Review, Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: Big data and Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) are revolutionizing the ways in which firms, governments, and employers classify individuals. Surprisingly, however, one of the most important threats […]

Bruckner et al. article on when the DOE should not contest the discharge of student loans

Matthew A. Bruckner of Howard, Brook Gotberg of Missouri, Dalié Jiménez of Irvine and Harvard's Center on the Legal Profession, and Chrystin D. Ondersma of Rutgers have written No-Contest Discharge for Uncollectable Student Loans, forthcoming in the University of Colorado Law Review (2020). Here is the abstract: Over 44 million Americans owe more than 1.4 trillion […]

Kraninger agrees with Mulvaney that she doesn’t have to answer Congress’s questions

by Jeff Sovern This transcript of the young Kathleen Kraninger has recently been unearthed: Adult: Did you eat the chocolate chip cookies? Kraninger: I will stipulate that there were chocolate chip cookies and that they are no longer here. Adult: Did you eat them? Kraninger: I understand what you're getting at. Adult: Did you take […]

Imre Szalai Study Finds 78 Fortune 100 Companies Use Class Action Waivers in Consumer Agreements

Imre S. Szalai of Loyola of New Orleans has written The Prevalence of Consumer Arbitration Agreements by America’s Top Companies, 52 U.C. Davis L. Rev. Online 233 (2019). Here is the abstract:  This article present the results of a study that examines the use of arbitration agreements by the top 100 Fortune Magazine-ranked largest domestic […]

Reidenberg et al. Article on Trustworthy Privacy Indicators

Joel R. Reidenberg of Fordham, together with four co-authors, has written Trustworthy Privacy Indicators: Grades, Labels, Certifications and Dashboards, 96 Washington University Law Review  (2019).  Here's the abstract: Despite numerous groups’ efforts to score, grade, label, and rate the privacy of websites, apps, and network-connected devices, these attempts at privacy indicators have, thus far, not been […]