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 […]
Read Warren: Wall Street using small banks to weaken rules in today's The Hill.
In a case we've discussed before about the wage/hour claims of a class of Applebee's workers, the Second Circuit today delivered an important victory today for class-action plaintiffs. The court held that the Supreme Court's 2013 decision in Comcast v. Behrend does not foreclose the certification of a class action where the plaintiffs' damages must […]
The Federal Trade Commission announced its annual summary of activity enforcing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act: Over the past year, the Federal Trade Commission has continued its vigorous work on behalf of U.S. consumers suffering from unlawful debt collection practices, including bringing law enforcement actions against abusive and fraudulent operations, conducting education and public […]
Yesterday, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released "a report highlighting the top complaints for reverse mortgages. According to the report, consumers are frustrated with their loan terms, servicer runarounds, and foreclosure problems. To help consumers who already have a reverse mortgage, the CFPB [also issued] an advisory with tips on how to plan ahead to […]
Here. An excerpt: At the center of the regulations being considered, the people familiar with the matter said, is a requirement that lenders assess whether borrowers can repay loans — interest and principal — at the end of a two-week period by examining their income, other debts and their payment history. Few people can, the […]

