The FTC announced yesterday that the "world’s largest debt collection operation, Expert Global Solutions and its subsidiaries, has agreed to stop harassing consumers with allegedly illegal debt collection calls and to pay a $3.2 million civil penalty – the largest ever obtained by the Federal Trade Commission against a third-party debt collector." The FTC's press […]
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Law profs Sam Issacharoff and D. Theodore Rave "The BP Oil Spill Settlement and the Paradox of Public Litigation." Here is the abstract: The streamlined administrative program that BP set up to pay claims arising out of the Deepwater Horizon Oil spill — the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) — promised a significant transaction-cost savings […]
That's the topic of this article by Alana Semuels of the LA Times.
The plaintiffs make what sound like serious and detailed allegations involving price fixing against Travelocity (agreement not to resell hotel rooms below fixed price, most favored nation restrictions, etc.). But wait, you can guess what happens. Because, of course, Travelocity has a forced arbitration clause. The district court (N.D. Texas) decision finds that the arbitration […]
Law professor Keith Hylton has written "The Economics of Class Actions and Class Action Waivers." Here is the abstract: Class action litigation has generated a series of recent Supreme Court decisions imposing greater federal court supervision over the prosecution of collective injury claims. This group of cases raises the question whether class action waivers should […]
by Paul Bland Here is a terrific amicus brief written by Professor Walker of Drake University and his co-counsel. As some of you may know, in 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court held in EEOC v. Waffle House that even if employees of a company had signed an arbitration clause, that the federal agency could still pursue […]
by Brian Wolfman This June 21 article by James Stewart explains that In a departure from long-established practice, the recently confirmed chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, said this week that defendants would no longer be allowed to settle some cases while “neither admitting nor denying” wrongdoing. “In the interest of […]
Consumers in this country pay more for health care than in other developed countries. And maternity care provides a dramatic example, as explained in this article by Elisabeth Rosenthal. Check out this chart from Rosenthal's article: Here's an excerpt: [T]hough maternity care costs far less in other developed countries than it does in the United […]
[Ed note: The following guest post is the third in a series of posts about payday lending or "deposit advance" loans issued by banks. Go here and here for the prior two posts.] Guest post by Jim Hawkins, University of Houston Law Center In reading Gary Kalman's guest post, I wondered why the Center for Responsible […]
Guest post from Gary Kalman, EVP, Center for Responsible Lending Earlier this week, Professor Jeff Sovern posted a piece here questioning whether banks should get out of the “deposit advance” lending business—i.e., payday lending. We appreciate his comments, but loan sharking is loan sharking. Banks are pushing triple-digit interest loans that are structured to create […]