Coming soon to a TV screen near you: An ad from the Chamber of Commerce exhorting viewers to tell their Senators to block the CFPB's arbitration rule so lawyers will stop bringing lawsuits over coffee. I kid you not. Never mind that the rule applies to rip-offs by banks, credit card companies, and other financial […]
The "Bargainista" columnist for the on-line news site TCPalm.com, a USA Today affiliate focusing on Florida's Treasure Coast, commonly covers subjects such as the availability of "mooncakes" at Denny's on eclipse day, the supply of pretzels at the Wawa convenience store chain, and special deals available on "holidays" like National Fajitas Day, National Bowling Day, National […]
As CFPB director Richard Cordray described it: Consumer financial protections are not confined within the 50 states. American Express discriminated against consumers in Puerto Rico and the U.S. territories by providing them with less-favorable financial products and services. They have ceased this practice and are making consumers whole. In particular, because they self-reported the problem and […]
by Paul Alan Levy Responding to an outpouring of popular outrage as well as legal filings (including one from Public Citizen as well as an amicus brief from Avaaz) showing that the First Amendment protects the right to read anonymously and can be used to limit the enforcement of criminal discovery demands seeking to identify […]
The unanimous decision, by Chief Judge Wood, is Laurens v. Volvo Cars of N. America. Here's the beginning of the opinion, which sums things up quite nicely: The idea of a theme and variations is a common one in music. It should be in law, too. Here we return to the familiar theme of a defense effort […]
NPR reports on the Trump Administration proposed rule to allow nursing homes to require new residents to agree to arbitration as a condition of admission. A rule issue under the Obama Administration barred nursing homes forced arbitration agreements for nursing homes, leaving it to the two sides to decide whether they preferred court or arbitration […]
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray has an op-ed in the New York Times today, explaining the importance of the CFPB rule barring class-action bans in forced arbitration provisions.His conclusion: "A cherished tenet of our justice system is that nobody should escape accountability for breaking the law. Our rule restores consumers’ legal right to […]
That's the topic of Partisan Balance With Bite by law profs Brian Feinstein and Daniel Hemel. It struck me as timely. Here is the abstract: Dozens of multimember agencies across the federal government are subject to partisan balance requirements, which mandate that no more than a simple majority of agency members may hail from a single party. […]
Does the talc in baby powder cause ovarian cancer? A California jury thinks so. And, by a vote of 9 to 3, that jury today told Johnson & Johnson to pay $417 million to a woman with ovarian cancer. Read about it here, here, here, and here. One report notes that Johnson & Johnson, "which faces 5,500 […]
by Paul Alan Levy This morning we filed a motion for leave to intervene in the proceeding, now assigned to Chief Judge Robert Morin of the Superior Court for the District of Columbia, in which DreamHost has been opposing the implementation of a warrant for all files connected with the DisruptJ20 web site that carried […]