In a new article, The Discovery Tax, law prof Brian Fitzpatrick proposes a litigation discovery tax. Generally, the scheme would impose more tax on consumer, civil-rights, and other plaintiffs (because plaintiffs tend to have more to discover from defendants than the other way around). Here is the abstract: The American civil discovery regime is what […]
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The Washington Post, addressing the current work of the CFPB and the Department of Education, had editorials yesterday and today pertinent to student loans and higher education: Read "The Trump administration’s scandalous handling of student loans," here. Read "How Betsy DeVos could trigger another financial meltdown," here. The New York Times, addressing proposed changes by […]
Cornucopia Institute, a Wisconsin-based farm policy group, said consumers cannot rely only on the organic seal from the USDA. The group says that the USDA is failing to protect ethical industry participants and consumers from fraud. Food Safety News has the story, here.
That's the topic of A New Legal Framework for Employee and Consumer Arbitration Agreements by law prof Imre Szalai. Here's the abstract: If an arbitration clause in an employment or consumer agreement contains a harsh term, such as an abbreviated statute of limitations or a provision requiring arbitration in a distant location, judges will sometimes sever the […]
by Paul Alan Levy A few months ago, I blogged about an important Sixth Circuit ruling on the issue of online anonymity. Signature Management Team v. Doe, 876 F.3d 831 (2017), came close to endorsing the Dendrite approach to deciding whether a defendant who has been sued for allegedly inappropriate behavior should be denied the […]
That's the headline of this article by Kevin Breuninger's piece. Here are the key take-aways of Breuninger's piece: Sen Warren proposes a new bill that would ban members of Congress and the White House staff from owning individual stocks. As an apparent alternative, the legislation would create "conflict-free investment opportunities for federal officials with new investment […]
Michael Hiltzik's column, titled Bankruptcy is hitting more older Americans, pointing to a retirement crisis in the making, surveys a new report about the growing number of bankruptcies filed by older people. One reason for this trend is that retired workers generally no longer have company-paid pensions. He notes that a sizable percentage of American workers were […]
The Economic Policy Institute has issued a report that looks at trends in chief executive officer (CEO) compensation. It looked at stock options realized, plus salary, bonuses, restricted stock grants, and long-term incentive payouts. It found: In 2017 the average CEO of the 350 largest firms in the U.S. received $18.9 million in compensation, a 17.6 percent […]
The Military Lending Act (MLA) is aimed at protecting service members from predatory loans and unfair financial products and services. (For instance, the MLA prohibits the use of arbitration agreements in most consumer credit contracts entered into by service members and their dependents.) But it appears that the Trump Administration wants to undermine the MLA. At the […]
Remember last May's decision in Epic Systems v. Lewis? There, the Supreme Court held that the Federal Arbitration Act demands enforcement of arbitration clauses against workers, including class-action and collective-action waivers contained in arbitration clauses, notwithstanding the Act's savings clause and the National Labor Relations Act's protection for workers to engage in "concerted activities." This article by […]