Yesterday, Brian flagged an article about courts' distortions of mootness doctrine in the context of Rule 68. Fortunately, help is on the way (at least in some circuits). For instance, the Second Circuit held this week (in a case in which Public Citizen filed an amicus brief) that an unaccepted Rule 68 offer does not […]
If you're interested in that topic, you may want to look at Don't Try this at Home: The Troubling Distortion Of Rule 68 by Bradley Girard. Here's the abstract: Rule 68 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure was enacted to promote consensual settlement. Through a mandatory cost-shifting mechanism, the Rule incentivizes defendants to make […]
We wrote yesterday about the failure of fast-track trade authority to proceed in the Senate. Today saw a reversal of fortune, with fast-track moving ahead along with two other bills meant to temper Senate opposition. The Washington Post reports. Also worth a read on the subject are two articles this week covering the cases for […]
Several items of interest on the Hill this week: -We've recently discussed the (fortunately, failed) plan to delay protections for military personnel against predatory lending. Well, the fight isn't over — a bill to block the protections has been introduced in the House. Huffington Post has the story. -Also troubling: a discussion draft of a […]
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is collecting information about problems experienced with student loan servicing. According to the CFPB's blog: Over 40 million Americans are repaying more than $1.2 trillion in outstanding student loan debt. Significant debt can have a domino effect on the major choices you make in your life: whether to take a […]
After a week in which the President dealt out unusually harsh criticism of members of his own party for opposing free trade deals — though these deals, in fact, threaten to undermine U.S. consumer protection laws and hand a lot more power to multinational corporations — the administration's trade agenda failed a crucial test in […]
Yesterday, in what otherwise might have been a garden-variety opinion enforcing an arbitration agreement, Judge Richard Posner of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit had some striking things to say about arbitration. His opinion sarcastically pooh-poohed the idea that arbitration agreements are "darlings" of the law and went on to question whether […]
Rebecca Tushnet’s blog calls attention to a bizarre cybersquatting complaint that was recently filed in the Northern District of California by ThermoLife, an Arizona company that touts its dietary supplements as providing “the purest, most powerful and innovative products” using the trademark “Muscle Beach.” The trademark claims are utter nonsense, but the proceeding raises a […]
The California Supreme Court has revived a series of antitrust suits against drug manufacturers Bayer and Barr Laboratories. The cases stem from an agreement between brand-name manufacturer Bayer and generic manufacturer Barr, under which Bayer agreed to pay Barr $398.1 million in exchange for Barr postponing the sale of the generic version of Bayer’s antibiotic […]