As you may know, the Munger Tolles law firm has backtracked on its effort to force summer associates to sign mandatory, pre-dispute arbitration agreements with the firm. Given the "me too" movement, the firm certainly had a PR problem on its hands. As this article by Meghan Tribe explains: Munger, Tolles & Olson reacted swiftly Sunday afternoon after news of […]
In today's New York Times, two lawyers from the large corporate law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison argue for repeal of the law that immunizes gun manufacturers from liability and explain the importance of law allowing individuals to hold industry accountable for wrongdoing. A nice piece, available here.
Justin Sevier and Kelli Alces Williams, both of Florida State, have written Consumers, Seller-Advisors, and the Psychology of Trust, Boston College Law Review, Forthcoming. Here is the abstract: Every day, consumers ask sellers for advice. Because they do not or cannot know better, consumers rely on that advice in making financial decisions of varying significance. Sellers, motivated […]
Reuters reports: "The top cop for U.S. consumer finance has decided not to sue a payday loan collector and is weighing whether to drop cases against three payday lenders, said five people with direct knowledge of the matter." The full article is here.
Today, the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a joint report on their 2017 activities to combat illegal debt collection practices. The annual report to Congress on the administration of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act details the agencies’ efforts to stop unlawful debt collection practices, including vigorous law enforcement, education and […]
Kevin Brasler of Washington Consumer Checkbook has an interesting column in last week’s Washington Post detailing the findings of a study of consistently deceptive advertising of ”big ticket items” that are supposedly on sale, even though the supposed regular price was never applicable during the ten month period of the study. The complete study is […]
by Jeff Sovern H.R. 5802 passed the House Financial Services Committee today, on a 35-25 vote. The bill would exempt from the FDCPA any lawyer to the extent that the lawyer "is engaged in litigation activities in connection with a legal action in a court of law to collect a debt . . ." If […]
by Jeff Sovern Kate Berry has a report at the American Banker, A CFPB commission will never fly, chock full of interesting quotes. The gist of it is that the Senate Democrats who voted for the bank bill oppose changes in the CFPB and so say they will not support a revised bill if the House […]
The result today in Cyan v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund is interesting, particularly given the legislative trend to provide forum choice to defendants in aggregate litigation (which usually means federal court, because big companies generally prefer federal court). The issues and the Supreme Court's unanimous holding are crisply stated in the first paragraph of Justice Kagan's […]
Colin P. Marks of St. Mary's has written Online Terms as In Terrorem Devices. Here's the abstract: Online shopping has quickly replaced the brick-and-mortar experience for a large portion of the consuming public. The online transaction itself is rote: browse items, add them to your cart, and checkout. Somewhere along the way, the consumer is likely […]