Dep’t of Education begins to walk back rules protecting students from fraud

As The Washington Post reports: The Education Department officials opened formal negotiations on Monday to rewrite federal rules meant to protect students from fraud by colleges and universities. The talks with university representative and student advocates are taking place as the department faces criticism for delaying consideration of tens of thousands of loan forgiveness claims […]

Arbitration Opt-Outs Hit a New Low: Now They Are Undeliverable

by Jeff Sovern Some arbitration clauses permit consumers to opt out of arbitration and class action waivers provided the consumer acts within a stated period. For example, Asana provides in § 13.8 of its Terms of Service for a 30-day opt-out. Those wishing to opt out are instructed to send "written notice of your decision to opt […]

DC Superior Court Ruling on the Facebook Search Warrant: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

by Paul Alan Levy D.C. Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Morin has issued his ruling on the pending objections to search warrants served on Facebook by Federal prosecutors seeking the entire contents of the Facebook accounts for the DisruptJ20 Facebook page as well as the personal accounts of two individuals, Lacey MacAuley and Legba Carrefour, […]

Kate Berry Asks Did CFPB’s Cordray fake out Trump and GOP?

The story is in the American Banker. The theory is that by refusing to rule out a run for the governorship of Ohio, Cordray led Trump to believe that he could avoid the political heat he would take by firing Cordray because Cordray would quit anyway.  Indeed, firing Cordray might even make him a political […]

Senate Expected to Vote Soon on Confirmation of Otting, Former Banker, to Regulate Banks as Comptroller

by Jeff Sovern Bloomberg is reporting in a story headlined Senate Clears Way for Ex-Mnuchin Deputy to Lead Bank Regulator, that: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has filed a motion to kick off debate and an eventual vote to appoint Otting as head of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. It will likely take […]

Law Profs Sought to Judge ABA Law Student Consumer Law Writing Competition

The ABA Antitrust Consumer Protection Committee is seeking law professors to judge a law student writing competition on he Tension Between Truth in Advertising Restrictions and  First Amendment Free Speech Rights. Submissions are to be due by  April 1, 2018 and the award is to be decided by July, 2018. If you are interested, please email […]

Most student-loan fraud claims involve for-profits colleges

A new report by The Century Foundation based on analysis of data from the Department of Education shows that students who attended for-profit colleges filed more than 98 percent of the requests for student loan forgiveness alleging fraud by their schools.The study is based on nearly 100,000 applications for loan forgiveness based on "borrower defense" […]

American Banker: Dems’ brighter 2018 chances could upend bank priorities

by Jeff Sovern Here (the content appears to be free). Excerpt: After the GOP captured the U.S. House majority in 2010, Republicans quickly went to work trying to * * * undercut the Dodd-Frank Act and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, among other things. A Democratic victory in 2018 would likely have a reverse effect, […]

Phishing Emails Now Purporting to Come From Law School Deans!

by Jeff Sovern Phishing emails purporting to come for financial institutions and others have long been an unfortunate fact of life for consumers (for a reports of phishing emails supposed to be from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, go here, and the concept of phishing has even shown up in the title […]

Will ERISA class actions over illegal fees and retirement plan mismanagement be killed off by class-action arbitration bans?

That's the topic of this piece by Jacklyn Willie (possibly behind a pay wall) which discusses this Chamber of Commerce amicus brief filed in an important Ninth Circuit appeal. The suit was filed against the University of Southern California by its employees over the legality of fees charged through USC's employee retirement plan. Willie explains that The central question […]