Imre S. Szalai of Loyola New Orleans has written DIRECTV, Inc. v. Imburgia: How the Supreme Court Used a Jedi Mind Trick To Turn Arbitration Law Upside Down, 32 Ohio State Journal on Dispute Resolution, 1, (2016 Forthcoming). Here's the abstract: The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) is the primary federal statute governing millions of arbitration […]
The Washington Post reports: The head of a payday lending enterprise accused of charging more than 700 percent interest on short-term loans was indicted Thursday on federal racketeering charges. Charles M. Hallinan, 75, led a group that preyed on customers while taking in nearly $700 million from 2008 to 2013, according to the indictment. Hallinan […]
The Hill reports: The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau defended its record Thursday to critical Republican senators, who charged it with preferring punitive action over transparent rules and stifling the country’s credit market through unaccountable actions. CFPB Director Richard Cordray told the Senate Banking Committee that the agency's actions to crack down on […]
In a recent post, Jeff Sovern noted that, “About two-thirds of US law schools offer neither a doctrinal course nor a clinic on consumer law, despite the significance of the subject.” In many cases, this is because there are fewer law professors interested in teaching consumer, rather than a conscious effort on the part of […]
“If you rape a child, you get the benefit of tort reform." That comment, from the lawyer of a woman who was raped as a teenager by a youth pastor in Ohio, sums up the problem covered in a recent Slate article, which explains how damages caps can limit the recovery for victims of sexual […]
Last week, the National Consumer Law Center and the American Civil Liberties Union sued to enforce a FOIA request to the U.S. Department of Education seeking information on the Department's policies concerning collections on student loan debt. As the press release explains, the groups are concerned about differential treatment of student borrowers of color and […]
In addition to the Federal Trade Commission action described in the blog post below, the FTC also announced yesterday that it is mailing 474 checks totaling more than $33,000 to consumers who lost money to a scheme that charged homeowners an up-front fee for mortgage relief services they promised but never provided. In September 2015, […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday that it is mailing 1,701 checks totaling more than $596,000 to consumers who lost money to a fraudulent debt collection scheme that processed payments for payday loan debts they did not owe. In September 2015, a federal court banned Kirit Patel, Broadway Global Master Inc. and In-Arabia Solutions Inc. […]
We've mentioned before the case of Don Blankenship, the former head of Massey Energy whom a jury convicted of conspiracy to violate federal mine safety standards in connection with the Upper Big Branch disaster that killed 29 workers. Today a federal judge sentenced Blankenship to one year in prison. It's not as much as you might expect given […]
This Reuters story explains that Seven New England Patriots fans sued the National Football League on Tuesday, asking a judge to reverse a decision by the league to strip the team of a first-round pick in this month's draft over allegations of underinflated footballs. In a lawsuit filed in Boston federal court, the fans contend that NFL […]