CBS News reports that "[o]verstating a debtor's balance — also called 'overbiffing' — is the latest outrage in unfair debt collection." The article is here.
The Hill reports that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos was sued Tuesday for allegedly failing to cancel student debt for people whose for-profit colleges have shut down. Last month a court ruled that the Obama-era debt regulations had to be implemented after more than a year of delays by DeVos. Yesterday, however, a California legal […]
by Jeff Sovern The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provides consumers a variety of protections. Collectors, for example, are barred from making false statements and engaging in unfair practices, and are obliged to give consumers certain disclosures. But the American Bar Association wants to excuse lawyers "engaged in litigation activities" from complying with the […]
That's the topic of this article by Karen Sloan. Here's an excerpt: A group of Harvard law students aims to pressure Kirkland & Ellis to drop its use of mandatory arbitration for employees by encouraging their classmates to boycott the firm during the upcoming summer associate recruiting cycle. Organizers of the boycott hope that starving the firm […]
The New York Times reports today: The students attended institutions with pragmatic names like the Minnesota School of Business and others whose branding evoked ivy-draped buildings and leafy quads, like Corinthian Colleges. Tens of thousands of them say they are alike in one respect: They were victims of fraud, left with useless degrees and crushing […]
by Jeff Sovern Regular readers of the blog know that we often write about the ineffectiveness of disclosures, and plenty of others have the same complaint. But here's a bit of good news: a study by Michael Grubb, Paul Adams, Andrea Caflisch, Darragh Kelly, and Jeroen Nieboer, and Matthew Osborne, discussed at a recent FDIC Consumer […]
Read Wells Fargo says its promises to restore consumer trust were just ‘puffery.’ But now they look like lies by Michael Hiltzik. Here's an excerpt that sets the theme: If you’ve ever wondered how businesses can get away with making transparently false or deceptive claims about themselves or their products — “The Best Tasting Juice in America,” […]
Ann M. Burkhart of Minnesota has written Fixing Foreclosure, 36 Yale Law & Policy Review (2018). Here is the abstract: Since the American Revolution, mortgage foreclosures have consisted of a public auction of the mortgaged property. Judges and state legislators at the time believed that an auction was the best way to obtain a fair price for the […]
Camilla E. Watson of Georgia has written Federal Financing of Higher Education at a Crossroads: The Evolution of the Student Loan Debt Crisis and the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Here is the abstract: Currently, there are 44.2 million Americans holding student loan debt collectively totaling $1.5 trillion. This massive debt has a […]
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California has issued "Procedural Guidance for Class Action Settlements." The guidance addresses items to include in a motion for preliminary approval, suggestions for class notice, and attorney fees. Among other things, the guidelines instruct lawyers to file an accounting of the distribution to the class and […]