Yesterday, a unanimous panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit issued an opinion in Nelson v. Great Lakes Educational Loan Services, Inc. in which it concluded that the federal Higher Education Act (HEA) does not preempt state law claims against student loan servicers. The case involves a student loan borrower who brought a […]
The question presented in this brand-new cert petition is Whether the vesting of substantial executive authority in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an independent agency led by a single director, violates the separation of powers.
Various consumer and health groups – including the Consumer Federation of America, the American Institute for Cancer Research, the American Public Health Association, Breast Cancer Action, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the U.S. Alcohol Policy Alliance — have called for the following warning on alcohol beverage labels: GOVERNMENT WARNING: According to […]
On Tuesday, seven borrowers sued Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education after the agency failed to take action on their applications for relief from student loans. Under a 1995 law, the Department has authority to forgive the federal debt of students whose colleges defrauded them. The agency, however, has not approved or […]
A consumer-advocacy group as asking the Federal Trade Commission to investigate a practice where retailers use consumer information collected by data brokers to decide how much to charge individual customers. According to the petition submitted to the FTC by #REPRESENT, part of the Consumer Education Foundation, "[m]ajor American corporations, including online and retail businesses, employers […]
From the announcement: The Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice is pleased to announce that the second annual Consumer Law Scholars Conference will be held at the UC Berkeley School of Law on March 5-6, 2020. The conference will provide those who publish in the field of Consumer Law the opportunity to share […]
On Friday, the DC Circuit held that two groups of federal workers can move forward with class action lawsuits against the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) over a 2015 data breach that exposed the personal information of 22 million people.The district court had dismissed the case, holding that the plaintiffs lacked standing and had failed […]
by Jeff Sovern The industry and some others often complain about "regulation by enforcement," by which I gather is meant that enforcement agencies bring actions against businesses without having previously given extremely clear notice that, in the agency's view, the conduct that is the subject of the action violates existing law. Director Cordray's CFPB was […]
Gregory S. Crespi of Southern Methodist Universit has written Why Are 99% of the Applications for Debt Discharge under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program Being Denied, and Will This Change? Here is the abstract: During the first 18 months after October 1, 2017 that student loan borrowers were able to apply for tax-free debt […]
John P. Hunt of California, Davis has written Promoting the Purposes of Student Loans by Tempering Bankruptcy Nondischargeability. Here's the abstract: Student loans, unlike other debts, are not dischargeable in bankruptcy unless the debtor starts a special proceeding and proves that repayment would cause “undue hardship.” This requirement probably accounts for the fact that only a […]