We have covered the question whether raising the minimum wage will help or hurt workers and the "living wage" movement more generally (for instance, go here and here). Now, this article by Michael Fletcher discusses a cost of the low-wage econony: the outlay of public benefits for people whose wages are so low that they […]
Jeffrey Bils, a UCLA law student, has published Fighting Unfair Credit Reports: A Proposal to Give Consumers More Power to Enforce the Fair Credit Reporting Act, in the latest UCLA Law Review Discourse. Here's a summary: Credit reports play a central role in some of our most important transactions, such as buying a house or car, or […]
In Madigan v. Levin, the Supreme Court granted cert to decide this significant question (stated from the petitioner's perspective): Whether the Seventh Circuit erred in holding, in an acknowledged departure from the rule in at least four other circuits, that state and local government employees may avoid the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act’s comprehensive […]
Last Thursday, Jon Sheldon posted about the National Consumer Law Center's comprehensive report on property exemption laws around the country. A testament to the value of NCLC's report is Chris Morran's lengthy and useful summary in The Consumerist, which notes that, in Vermont, debt collectors can’t seize your goats or bees, but your car may […]
Linda Mullenix of Texas has written The Court's 2012 Class Act: A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That, 40 Preview of U. S. Supreme Court Cases 328 (2013). Here's the abstract: Building on the Court’s heightened interest in class action litigation, the Court during the 2012-13 term issued an unprecedented six decisions […]
by Deepak Gupta I thought readers might be interested in a new appeal that my firm is handling in the Ninth Circuit, Moran v. The Screening Pros, concerning the state and federal regulation of background-check companies. You can read our opening brief here. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission have weighed in with an amicus […]
That's the name of this article by Xiaoling Ang of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and law professor Dalie Jimenez. For many years, federally guaranteed student loans have been non-dischargeable in bankruptcy, unless the debtor can show "undue hardship" (which the courts have interpreted very narrowly). Congress later extended that non-dischargeability policy even to entirely […]
Although Facebook has been sued for the practice (the case is now headed to the Ninth Circuit on our appeal from settlement approval), Google announced late last week that it would soon begin using user images in advertisements. One silver lining: Google, unlike Facebook, will exempt users under 18, the New York Times reports. Facebook's […]
by Brian Wolfman Well at least the debt-collection lawyers don't, as explained in this article by Jenna Greene. According to the incoming head of the debt-collection lawyers' trade group, the CFPB is "the bane of our existence." Here is an except from Greene's article: When scores of debt-collection lawyers descend on Washington this week for […]
Catherine M. Sharkey of NYU has written The Future of Classwide Punitive Damages, 46 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform (2013). Here is the abstract: Conventional wisdom holds that the punitive damages class action is susceptible not only to doctrinal restraints imposed on class actions but also to constitutional due process limitations placed […]