Tim Lytton at Georgia State has written Outbreak: Foodborne Illness and the Struggle for Food Safety. Here's the blurb: Foodborne illness is a big problem. Wash those chicken breasts, and you’re likely to spread Salmonella to your countertops, kitchen towels, and other foods nearby. Even salad greens can become biohazards when toxic strains of E. coli inhabit the water […]
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by Paul Alan Levy The spring, an unusual coalition of forces made a serious run at gutting the Texas Citizens’ Participation Act, the Texas version of state anti-SLAPP suits that protects consumers and citizen activists from baseless lawsuits intended to stop them from voicing criticisms of businesses and powerful political figure in their communities. A […]
That's the topic of The New Food Safety by law profs Emily Leib and Margot Pollans. Here is the abstract: A safe food supply is essential for a healthy society. Our food system is replete with different types of risk, yet food safety is understood as encompassing only foodborne illness and other risks related directly […]
The Center for American Progress today released a report discussing structural reforms to the court system and suggesting reforms to restore access to the courts — two topics that are discussed separately in the report but are surely related. The reforms suggested to restore individuals' access to the civil justice are not new ideas but […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is proposing a new rule that would allow debt collectors to send consumers an unlimited number of texts and emails. The agency says that its rule would be good for consumers. The Washington Post reports, however, that consumer advocates worry the CFPB is giving the industry a new way to […]
This morning, in a unanimous opinion in a case is called CFPB v. Seila Law, Inc., the Ninth Circuit decided a challenge to the CFPB's structure. The CFPB is headed by a single Director who exercises substantial executive power but can be removed by the President only for cause. Relying on the Supreme Court’s separation-of-powers […]
The members of the American Law Institute are poised to vote on May 21 on whether to adopt, for the first time, a Restatement of the Law of Consumer Contracts. That's right: A Restatement that would purport to state the law on, among other things, the take-or-leave-it contracts that we "agree to" every day and […]
John Van Alst of the National Consumer Law Center has written this comprehensive report entitled Time to Stop Racing Cars: The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Buying and Using a Car. Here is the executive summary: For many in America, a car provides not only physical mobility but also economic mobility. Yet for years, […]
ProPublica and WNYC are investigating whether the Consumer Financial Protection Agency is enforcing federal consumer financial laws and holding companies accountable. They want to hear from people who work at the agency and those who have left recently, particularly people who are familiar with enforcement actions, supervisory exams, and proposed rules like those governing payday […]
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) provides people whose cell phones receive unconsented-to, autodialed calls and texts a right to sue. Since the Supreme Court's decision in Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016), which held that statutory violations unaccompanied by "concrete injuries" do not provide a plaintiff with "standing" to sue in […]