by Jeff Sovern Some readers of our blog will no doubt be familiar with Nobel prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman from his popular books, What Do You Care What Other People Think? or Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Others will remember him from his service on the panel that investigated the Challenger disaster. His relevance to […]
Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship
by Jeff Sovern As to the eight questions that had right or wrong answers: Only two respondents answered all eight questions correctly out of 663 who answered all eight questions. 117 did not answer any of the questions correctly. That’s more than answered at least half the questions right. If this had been a test […]
by Jeff Sovern Last week I posted the abstract for our study, 'Whimsy Little Contracts' with Unexpected Consequences: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Understanding of Arbitration Agreements. I want to discuss today some of what we learned about respondent awareness of arbitration clauses in the contracts they have entered into. As the abstract noted, we asked […]
by Jeff Sovern Last week I posted the abstract for our study, 'Whimsy Little Contracts' with Unexpected Consequences: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Understanding of Arbitration Agreements. The abstract observed that many respondents think that form contracts can't strip consumers of certain rights. That conclusion is obvious from the statistical data, but the written comments make the […]
by Jeff Sovern Last week I posted the abstract for our study, 'Whimsy Little Contracts' with Unexpected Consequences: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Understanding of Arbitration Agreements. But the abstract doesn't come close to capturing all the interesting findings. I hope to write more about some of them in the days to come. Here's something […]
by Jeff Sovern Elayne Greenberg, Paul Kirgis, Yuxiang Liu, and I have posted a draft of our article, "Whimsy Little Contracts" with Unexpected Consequences: An Empirical Analysis of Consumer Understanding of Arbitration Agreements, to the web. Here's the abstract: Arbitration clauses have become ubiquitous in consumer contracts. These arbitration clauses require consumers to waive the […]
Cheryl B. Preston of Brigham Young has written 'Please Note: You Have Waived Everything': Can Notice Redeem Online Contracts? Forthcoming in the American University Law Review. Here is the abstract: Online consumers are largely unaware of the extent to which their actions are governed by legal terms in the form of clickwraps or browsewraps. These contracts […]
Nathalie Martin of New Mexico has written Public Opinion and the Limits of State Law: The Case for a Federal Usury Cap, 34 North Illinois University Law Review (2014). Here's the abstract: This Article calls on Congress to set a federal interest rate cap of 36%, applicable to all loans. Part II of this Article briefly describes […]
Catherine Lee Wilson of Nebraska has written Making Prepaid Safe for Consumers: A Framework for Providing Deposit Insurance and Regulation E Protections, Forthcoming in the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law. Here's the abstract: General purpose reloadable prepaid cards are part of a larger trend toward a cashless society. This market offers significant benefits […]
by Jeff Sovern The op-ed is here, at Forbes.com. Except that if you want to find out why everything Warren said is wrong, maybe the op-ed wouldn't be the place to look. Here's the lead: Why do people borrow? To hear law professor turned Senator Elizabeth Warren, it is because they are seduced by rapacious […]