by Paul Alan Levy The Manhattan Lasik Center secures customers, in part, by offering discounts through Groupon and similar online marketing programs. For a $1795 Groupon, for example, a customer can get lasik treatment for both eyes. Several reviews posted on Yelp, however, suggest that it is not at all unusual for patients to appear […]
Wyoming's 13th Consumer Issues Conference has the theme of “Navigating the New Health Care Market. " It will feature speakers on major consumer healthcare issues across three tracks: Innovative Directions in Healthcare; Legal Horizons in Healthcare; and Consumer Compass to Healthcare. Early registration ends September 23. Keynote Speakers: – Steven Brill, author of Time Magazine Article “Bitter […]
by Paul Alan Levy Last October, blogger Christina Garner posted an introspective article reflecting on media coverage of a lawsuit in which Tonya Cooley, a reality-show participant, alleged that two fellow participants had assaulted her sexually in a sequence that did not appear in the broadcast, including inserting a toothbrush into her while she was […]
Yesterday, we told you about declaratory judgment suits by Native American tribes against New York regulators seeking the right to make otherwise usurious payday loans on the ground that the tribes' sovereign immunity allows them to operate free from state usury laws. Now comes word that another payday lender, Western Sky, owned by a Cheyenne […]
On August 6, New York's financial regulatory agency took aim at online payday lenders, who "offer short-term loans at interest rates that often exceed 500 percent annually." As the New York Times reported, the state's financial regulator sent letters to 35 of the online lenders, instructing them to “cease and desist” from offering loans that […]
As you may have read, and as described in this article by Michael Gormley, "New York's attorney general sued Donald Trump for $40 million Saturday, saying the real estate mogul helped run a phony 'Trump University' that promised to make students rich but instead steered them into expensive and mostly useless seminars, and even failed […]
That's the tagline for New York's health care marketplace established under the Affordable Care Act. New York is one of 14 states that has created a variety of health plans for uninsured people available for purchase under the Act. Subsidies mandated by the Act are available for poor and moderate-income people. For people in states […]
Beginning his remarks by saying that "[t]his is probably controversial to say, but what the heck, I'm in my second term so I can say it," President Obama said today that law school should probably be two years rather than the current three because that would save law students a lot of money. Read more […]
About a year ago, Public Citizen petitioned for rehearing in a case in which a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a First Amendment retaliation claim brought by a police officer who courageously spoke out after he witnessed the abuse of suspects within his department. In a welcome development this week, […]
As we've discussed several times since March, the Supreme Court's decision this spring in Comcast Corp. v. Behrend has provided fodder for a new and dangerous argument that a damages class cannot be certified whenever the damages must be calculated individually. District court decisions have been mixed on this question, but so far the response […]