by Jeff Sovern Here. Makes me wonder how consumers can keep up, as well as what they got for their money.
In an opinion and order issued today, U.S. District Judge Michael Mills of the Northern District of Mississippi issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of the CMS rule barring the use of predispute arbitration agreements by nursing homes that participate in the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The court did not definitively hold the rule unlawful, but found it […]
CBS MoneyWatch has the story here. (HT: Gregory Gauthier). Excerpt: While the arbitrator sided with Dempsey, the ruling proved to be something of a Pyrrhic victory. The decision awarded Dempsey more than $20,500 in actual and punitive damages, as well as $30,000 in attorney fees, or about one-third of Dempsey’s legal costs. Since Citibank has […]
Just in time for the Supreme Court's oral argument on Tuesday in Wells Fargo v. Miami, Suffolk's Kathleen Engel, an important thinker on consumer law, has written Local Governments and Risky Home Loans, 69 Southern Methodist University Law Review 609. Here is the abstract: Municipalities from the Central Valley in California to Upstate New York bear the […]
Anthony J. Sebok of Cardozo has written The Unwritten Federal Arbitration Act, 65 DePaul Law Review (2016). Here's the abstract: Justice Scalia’s opinion in AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion presented a new challenge to lawyers and scholars concerned with the unbridled growth of mandatory consumer arbitration. Not only did the decision continue to expand the scope […]
Consumerist reports: A large, nationwide debt-collection operation that allegedly brought in tens of millions of dollars through illegal means — like impersonating law-enforcement officers, or threatening arrest for non-payment — is the target of a joint legal action by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the New York state attorney general. The article is here. […]
From The Washington Post today: AT&T's recently announced deal to acquire Time Warner reflects massive changes in media and technology. Although regulators could challenge the acquisition or slap conditions on it that may limit how AT&T can use its new assets, the purchase hints at a future where a single company can monetize the same customer multiple times […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has issued a new “Supervisory Highlights,” describing recent supervisory activity in the areas of auto mobile loan origination, automobile loan servicing, debt collection, mortgage origination, mortgage servicing, student loan servicing and fair lending. The reported findings reflect information obtained from supervisory activities completed between May 2016 and August 2016. The […]
Do race and gender play a role in how long a customer waits for an uber or lyft? What about cancellation rates? What about cost? A new study, published as a National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, shows a pattern of discrimination, especially as to race. See Racial and Gender Discrimination in Transportation Network Companies by […]