LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik explains why "the FDA just had the worst day in its history." Hiltzik says: During a White House event Sunday, FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn stood by silently in the face of an unsupported attack on his agency from the worst threat to public health in the U.S. today, President Trump. The […]
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Last Wednesday, the Ninth Circuit issued a 2-to-1 decision in Rittman v. Amazon, holding that Amazon "last-mile" delivery drivers are transportation workers engaged in interstate commerce under 9 U.S.C. § 1 and, therefore, are exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act's enforcement provisions. As law prof Adam Steinman explains here, Rittman follows a recent decision from the […]
Eight state attorneys general today filed a lawsuit challenging a new Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation rule that creates a loophole allowing predatory lenders to evade state laws that forbid excessive interest-rate charges. From the California attorney general's press release: "These caps on interest rates play a critical role in regulating payday loans and other high-cost […]
by Paul Alan Levy In past blog posts, I have discussed our efforts to persuade the copyright enforcement law firm headed by Mathew Higbee to concentrate its efforts to pursue copyright infringement claims on behalf of its photographer clients on cases where it has reasonable claims of infringement by actual Internet users who put up […]
Guest post by Neil Sobol: As part of an article in which I advocate for the incorporation of consumer law issues in first-year law classes, I requested my research assistant, Spencer Lockwood, to update the consumer law offerings chart reported in Jeff Sovern's post in 2019. Spencer surveyed 201 ABA accredited law schools via their websites. He organized […]
Law prof Daniel Hemel (@DanielJHemel) has posted a detailed series of tweets skewering the tort-deform provisions in the Republican-sponsored coronavirus relief bill. I recommend reading these tweets. Hemel begins with the statement that "[t]he liability provisions in McConnell’s 'HEALS Act' do not reflect a serious attempt to address problems with the tort system" and then […]
by Jeff Sovern Not only does McConnell's coronavirus bill make it much harder for consumers to sue businesses that carelessly infect them with the virus, it also makes it much easier for businesses to sue consumers suffering from COVID. Suppose a consumer sends a letter asking for help with medical bills to a business that […]
As the world races to find a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19, note a study published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study reviewed all vaccines approved by the Food & Drug Administration for the 20-year period ending December 31, 2015. The study's finding: Over a 20-year period, vaccines were found to […]
by Jeff Sovern The argument that businesses should not be liable to consumers whom they carelessly infect with the coronavirus is based on the claim that if Congress does not outlaw such cases, we will see a tidal wave of lawsuits. Thus far, that argument has no basis in reality. In fact, if anything, consumer […]
Today, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency issued a proposed rule to overturns the “true lender” rule that courts have used since the early 1800s to prevent evasions of state usury laws. The deadline to submit comments on the OCC’s proposal is September 3, 2020. In a statement, the National Consumer Law Center […]