Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a petition for certiorari in Northwest, Inc. v. Ginsberg, which will give the Court yet another opportunity to address the preemptive scope of a federal statute. In 2005, Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg, a long-time customer of Northwest Airlines, earned the highest level of membership benefits in Northwest’s customer loyalty […]
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by Brian Wolfman For a long time, the case law under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) has been bad for plaintiffs who want to be in court rather than in arbitration. And it's been getting worse in recent years. Class-action bans laundered through adhesive arbitration clauses are strictly enforced, even when they are unconscionable under […]
by Brian Wolfman Last Friday's Third Circuit ruling in Abraham v. St. Croix Rennaisance Group considered whether the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) provides federal "mass action" jurisdiction over a suit against a plant that continuously exposed nearby residents to toxic chemicals over an extended period. First, some background. CAFA provides jurisdiction in federal district […]
We have covered extensively the large mortgage fraud settlements brokered by the federal government under which major mortgage servicers were, among other things, supposed to pay money directly to consumers harmed in the mortgage meltdown. Go, for instance, here, here, here, and here. Now, Danielle Douglas, reports that it's taking a long time for the […]
That's the topic of "Compelled Disclosures," a new article by law professor Caroline Corbin. Here is the abtract: Courts have faced a wave of compelled disclosure cases recently. By government mandate, tobacco manufacturers must include graphic warnings on their cigarette packages, doctors must show and describe ultrasound images of fetuses to women seeking to abort […]
In In Re HP Inkjet Printers, the Ninth Circuit yesterday reversed the district court’s orders granting final approval to a class-action settlement between Hewlett-Packard Company and a nationwide class of consumers who purchased certain HP inkjet printers, and awarding attorneys’ fees. Here is the summary issued by the court: The panel held that the attorneys’ […]
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this week reinstated a $203 million judgment against Wells Fargo for slapping hefty overdraft fees on consumers by manipulating the order in which their charges posted to their accounts in order to maximize the number of transactions that would be subject to overdraft penalties. The […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has launched a Spanish-language website. (To read its English-language homepage go here.)
As the Blog of the Legal Times reported, the FTC sent letters to almost 100 companies letting them know about revisions to the regulations implementing the Childen's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a statute that regulates the collection of information from minors under 13 online. The new rules include an expansion of the types of […]
In the Huffington Post, with Joseph Sanderson.