At a hearing on Capitol Hill last week, lawmakers from both parties expressed interest in exempting small banks and credit unions from new financial rules, reported the Wall St. Journal. But there must be a limit, warned two of the committee’s most pro-consumer voices: Sens. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, the top Democrat on the powerful […]
California law caps at 30% the interest rate on loans of $2500 or less. So what did lender CashCall do? It made every loan — no matter how small — into a loan of $2600 or more, by having low-dollar borrowers "prepay" the amount up to $2600 that they didn't want. And what interest rates […]
That last summer's decision in Hobby Lobby wasn't the end of the legal fight over what health care coverage the government could require businesses asserting religious objections to provide for their employees became clear just three days after the Hobby Lobby was handed down. In a brief order that drew a sharp dissent from three […]
by Jeff Sovern I'm looking into survey evidence to establish or defend against a claimed violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for a possible article. If you have conducted such a survey in one of your cases or know someone who has, please email me at sovernj at stjohns dot edu. Thanks!
That's the title of this article by law professor Einer Elhauge. Here's his to-the-point abstract: The recent US Supreme Court decision in American Express v. Italian Colors Restaurant threatens to gut private antitrust enforcement in the United States by replacing it with ineffective forms of arbitration. The Court's logic that the right to pursue a […]
by Paul Alan Levy A trial judge in Texas has turned down a motion to compel Yelp to comply with a subpoena seeking identifying information about an unhappy consumer who complained about alleged misconduct by a Texas real estate firm, the Rhodes Team, and its agent, one Jeremy Wages, who allegedly did not stay in […]
by Jeff Sovern Congress enacted the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. Since then, law school applications have plummeted by more than 40,000. Therefore, the Dodd-Frank Act must have killed law school applications. At least, that's the conclusion I came to after reading Todd Zywicki's blog post, New study finds that Dodd-Frank has promoted industry consolidation and […]
California is considering enacting a new law protecting its citizens from warrantless spying. The proposed California Electronic Communications Privacy Act has bipartisan backing, along with support from major tech companies and civil liberties groups. Read more here from Top Tech News. Meanwhile, Samsung's SmartTVs can spy on you, reports CNN Money. Read more here.
Last year, 16 car manufacturers responded to questions from Senator Edward Markey (D-Mass.), pictured to the right, concerning whether their vehicles are vulnerable to hackers and how the companies collect and protect driver information. Senator Markey's office has now reviewed the information received from the manufacturers and issued this report. Here's Senator Markey's synopsis of […]