Category Archives: Uncategorized

Frivolous Libel Threats – the Reality Show

by Paul Alan Levy Last October, blogger Christina Garner posted an introspective article reflecting on media coverage of a lawsuit in which Tonya Cooley, a reality-show participant, alleged that two fellow participants had assaulted her sexually in a sequence that did not appear in the broadcast, including inserting a toothbrush into her while she was […]

Tribal lender Western Sky getting out of payday loan business

Yesterday, we told you about declaratory judgment suits by Native American tribes against New York regulators seeking the right to make otherwise usurious payday loans on the ground that the tribes' sovereign immunity allows them to operate free from state usury laws. Now comes word that another payday lender, Western Sky, owned by a Cheyenne […]

Tribal payday lenders sue NY financial regulator

On August 6, New York's financial regulatory agency took aim at online payday lenders, who "offer short-term loans at interest rates that often exceed 500 percent annually." As the New York Times reported, the state's financial regulator sent letters to 35 of the online lenders, instructing them to “cease and desist” from offering loans that […]

NY Attorney General: Donald Trump’s university scammed students

As you may have read, and as described in this article by Michael Gormley, "New York's attorney general sued Donald Trump for $40 million Saturday, saying the real estate mogul helped run a phony 'Trump University' that promised to make students rich but instead steered them into expensive and mostly useless seminars, and even failed […]

President Obama says law schools should ditch the third year to save students money

Beginning his remarks by saying that "[t]his is probably controversial to say, but what the heck, I'm in my second term so I can say it," President Obama said today that law school should probably be two years rather than the current three because that would save law students a lot of money. Read more […]

Excellent First Amendment whistleblower ruling from the Ninth Circuit

About a year ago, Public Citizen petitioned for rehearing in a case in which a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a First Amendment retaliation claim brought by a police officer who courageously spoke out after he witnessed the abuse of suspects within his department. In a welcome development this week, […]

Good news from the courts of appeals on Comcast v. Behrend

As we've discussed several times since March, the Supreme Court's decision this spring in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend has provided fodder for a new and dangerous argument that a damages class cannot be certified whenever the damages must be calculated individually. District court decisions have been mixed on this question, but so far the response […]

“Debt relief” company pushes back against CFPB

The Blog of LegalTimes reports: When Morgan Drexen Inc. found itself in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's crosshairs, the company, which works with law firms to provide debt relief services to consumers, initiated a response that's proving to be both unusually aggressive and public. The CFPB filed suit against the company earlier this week in […]

CFPB issues critical report on bank and non-bank mortgage servicing

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday issued this report "detailing mortgage servicing problems at banks and nonbanks. The report also found that many nonbanks lack robust systems for ensuring they are following federal laws." (quoting press release) According to the CFPB's press release, the agency found Sloppy account transfers: The rights to manage a loan […]