Fed Staff Article on Payment Fraud Liability

Sandeep Dhameja, Katy R. Jacob and Richard D. Porter, all of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, have written Clarifying Liability for Twenty-First-Century Payment Fraud, 37 Economic Perspectives (2013).  Here's the abstract: This article examines the governance structure of retail payments in the United States, provides an overview of payment fraud, and discusses in depth […]

Enforcing the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP)

That's the name of this article by law professor Jonathan Marcantel. Here's the abstract: In 2009, the Secretary of the Treasury (“the Secretary”) implemented the Home Affordable Modification Program (“HAMP”), a program designed to minimize foreclosures by providing incentives to loan servicers who modify eligible mortgages. Notwithstanding both its design and goal, HAMP has largely […]

Judge O’Scannlain: violation of a congressionally-created right is a injury sufficient for standing

Back in the Supreme Court's 2011 Term, a case that got a fair bit of attention was First American v. Edwards, which raised the question whether a plaintiff whose only injury was the violation of a congressionally-created right had standing to sue in federal court. The Court dismissed the case as improvidently granted (i.e., without […]

The CFO of Target on how to limit data breaches through “smart” credit- and debit-card technology

John J. Mulligan, the Chief Financial Officer of Target, has published Time for smart cards in The Hill. He says that the risks from credit- and debit-card theft can be significantly reduced if the U.S. imbeds "smart card" technology in credit and debit cards. Here's an excerpt (omitting stuff about how swell Target is): The […]

Liability for self-driving car crashes

We've posted several times on self-driving cars (also known as driverless cars or autonomous cars). Go, for instance, here, here, and here. But none of our posts considered the tort liability scheme when self-driving cars run into pedestrians, other cars, or property? Sophia Duffy and Jamie Patrick Hopkins have figured it out in Sit, Stay, […]

Med Express (Medical Specialists) Explanation for Suing Customers Gets Stranger

by Paul Alan Levy Late last month, we went to trial on a motion for sanctions against Med Express, the company that received widespread condemnation last year for suing two eBay customers who had the temerity to leave truthful but negative or even neutral feedback. You may recall that, after two Ohio lawyers stepped forward […]

What does “privacy” mean to Facebook?

Facebook is now ten years old. In this thought-provoking piece in the Washington Post, Michael Zimmer, who is an assistant professor at the School of Information Studies at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee and is the director of the Center for Information Policy Research, reviews Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's views over the past ten […]