by Jeff Sovern I've posted a paper on SSRN, Can Cost-Benefit Analysis Help Consumer Protection Laws? Or at Least Benefit Analysis?, forthcoming in the University of California-Irvine Law Review. Here's the abstract: Cost-benefit analysis is often troubling to consumer advocates. But this article argues that in some circumstances it may help consumers. The article gives […]
As we've discussed previously, D.C.'s tax-lien program can result in homeowners losing their homes because of liens bought by private companies where the delinquency was only a few hundred dollars. The Post published a fabulous investigative piece (this link is to the first of the three-part series), and the D.C. officials have promised reform. Now, […]
by Brian Wolfman We have posted (for instance, here and here) about efforts to push forward in various ways with the massive Title VII employment disrimination class action thrown out by the Supreme Court in Wal-Mart v. Dukes on the ground that the nationwide class did not meet the requirements of the federal class-action rule […]
Pharmalot has an interesting story this afternoon about the effect of including warnings in advertisements for products like drugs and cigarettes. The study found that, shortly after the ads run, consumers who see an ad with warnings are less likely to buy the product than consumers who see an ad without warnings. But with the […]
One night in 2002, Dr. Greg Gulbransen was backing up his SUV in his driveway when his two-year-old son Cameron darted out into the driveway behind the vehicle. Too small to be seen by his dad using any of the vehicle’s rearview or sideview mirrors, Cameron was struck by the moving car and killed. […]
Alexandra D. Lahav of Connecticut has written Symmetry and Class Action Litigation, 60 U.C.L.A.L. Rev.(2013). Here's the abstract: In ordinary litigation, parties often have different resources to devote to their lawsuit. This is a problem because the adversarial system is predicated on two (or more) parties, equal and opposite one another, making their best arguments […]
Today, a group of parents from California, New York, Tennessee, and Virginia appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in a case in which the district court last month approved a settlement between Facebook and class of plaintiffs alleging privacy violations. As we've described before, the settlement is bad deal; particularly […]
The Virginia Supreme Court has enforced an arbitration agreement against a housekeeper who sought to sue her former boss after he physically assaulted her. By this point, like it or not (not), consumer and worker advocates expect to find arbitration clauses hidden in virtually all of our form contracts, whether it be for our cell […]
…filing pro-business, often anti-consumer briefs. Reuters has the story, which provides as one example a case in which the Chamber "argu[ed] that a landfill operator should not have to pay certain damages to nearby residents for the irritating or offensive odors the facility produced. In August, the court issued a ruling in line with what […]
Many low-income people don't have bank accounts and have to pay fees and incur other costs to get access to their money. Lisa Servon at The Atlantic has written"The Real Reason the Poor Go Without Bank Accounts." Read the whole thing and take a look right now at Servon's concluding paragraph: The banking industry needs […]