Category Archives: Uncategorized

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 […]

U.S. income still down four years after end of recession

This article by Michael Fletcher discusses a new report showing that incomes in the U.S. haven't come close to recovering from the government-determined official end of the recession in mid-2009. Here's an excerpt and then two charts depicting income levels and unemployment over the last 12 and 1/2 years: The buying power of Americans continues […]

Potential connections between plastic food packaging and diabetes and obesity in kids

As the Consumerist reports, "[b]ecause there are apparently not enough studies to convince the Food and Drug Administration that controversial chemical Bisphenol-A (BPA) should not be used in just about every form of food packaging, yet another study has been published linking BPA to childhood obesity. Meanwhile, a separate study released today showed a possible […]