That's the topic of Fighting Fines & Fees: Borrowing from Consumer Law to Combat Criminal Justice Debt Abuses by law prof Neil Sobol. Here is the abstract: Although media and academic sources often describe mass incarceration as the primary challenge facing the American criminal justice system, the imposition of criminal justice debt may be a more pervasive […]
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The OCC regulates national banks and has some power over consumer protection issues. The Financial Times has the story here. Excerpt: If confirmed by the Senate, Mr Otting is likely to be “a reliable ally” for Mr Mnuchin and “a steady proponent for bank deregulation”, said Isaac Boltansky, analyst at Compass Point in Washington.
The Federal Trade Commission announced today that, in a case filed by it and the Florida Office of the Attorney General, a federal district court judge has entered eight orders against an intertwined web of Orlando-based individuals and companies that bombarded consumers with illegal robocalls from “Card Member Services,” pitching worthless credit card interest rate […]
Politico reports today that the Department of Education is considering delaying two rules that are scheduled to go into effect on July 1 — the borrower defense rule, which concerns student loans, and the gainful employment rules, which cuts off federal funding for for-profit colleges that provide students with more debt than benefit. The article […]
The headline is Outcry Over EpiPen Prices Hasn’t Made Them Lower. Excerpt: By August, the company, which sells thousands of drugs and says it fills one in every 13 American prescriptions, was making mea culpas and renewing its promise to “do what’s right, not what’s easy,” as the company’s mission statement goes. * * * […]
A company called Magellan Diagnostics touts itself as "the most trusted name in lead testing." But the Food and Drug Administration disagrees, saying that many of the company's products are inaccurate. The problem may go all the way back to 2014. And the problem appears to be false negatives — some of the company's lead […]
The Washington Post has this article.
Hundreds of illegal loans made to Massachusetts consumers by an unlicensed online auto title lender are now void pursuant to a judgment announced today by the Massachusetts Attorney General's office. The company has also been permanently barred from operating in Massachusetts, and liens they placed on vehicles have been dissolved with new titles issued to […]
The non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has released this analysis of Trump's budget. Listed below are the Committee's five key findings. The first three seek simply to state what the Trump Administration says is coming, including the Administration's predictions of enormous economic and political success. The last two are the Committee's attempts to deal with […]
This article at Think Progress points to some worrisome waivers in the terms of service for the DNA testing service at Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com argues in response that the some of the concerns are overstated but that in any event it has revised its terms to meet some of the concerns.