Cara L. Wilking of the Public Health Advocacy Institute and Richard A. Daynard of Northeastern have written Beyond Cheeseburgers: The Impact of Commonsense Consumption Acts on Future Obesity-Related Lawsuits, Food and Drug Law Journal, Vol. 68, No. 3, pp. 229 -329, 2013. Here is the abstract: Since 2004, 25 states have passed Commonsense Consumption Acts […]
Check out this thought-provoking article from the Boston Globe about why texting and driving remains such a persistent problem. We all know that texting and driving can be dangerous (and by "all,"the article cites an amazing 94% figure from a federal survey about the number of people who know this is a risky practice). Yet […]
by Brian Wolfman As we've explained in a series of recent posts, in Carrera v. Bayer, the Third Circuit reversed a grant of class certification on the ground that the class wasn't "ascertainable." Among other things, the panel said that the class of purchasers of an over-the-counter weight-loss product had not shown that it would be […]
By F. Paul Bland On Twitter @PblandBland This is a classic good news/bad news type of case for plaintiffs. The good news is that a court struck down as unconscionable an arbitration clause that imposed enormous fees on an individual before the individual could go to arbitration. The bad news is that the case shows what a […]
by Jeff Sovern House Financial Services Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling is still blaming regulation for the Great Recession. He recently pened an op-ed for the American Banker, Regulation – Not Lack Thereof – Led U.S. into Financial Crisis. In it, he repeats the right wing's frequently-debunked claim that the Community Reinvestment Act caused lenders to make the loans that […]
In a recent analysis of complaints submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau about financial services, the consulting firm Deloitte found that mortgage-related issues are the basis for most of the 94,000 complaints posted so far and that customer misunderstanding is often the problem. The Washington Post has a short write-up of the findings and […]
by Paul Alan Levy A fun exercise by Jonathan Band estimates the value of Wikipedia at tens of billions of dollars, with this punchline: "Wikipedia demonstrates that highly valuable content can be created by non-professionals [without the incentives provided] by the copyright system."
As Allison explained, the Third Circuit's recent Carrera decision puts consumer class actions in jeopardy, and so the plaintiff has sought hearing en banc. Public Citizen has now moved, with the parties' consent, to file this amicus brief.
As the Blog of the Legal Times explains: Continuing its crackdown on companies that provide debt settlement services, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau today announced that a payment processing company will pay $1.376 million to settle allegations that it collected illegal up-front fees from consumers. The CFPB said Tacoma, Wash.-based Meracord LLC helped debt-relief service […]
by Paul Alan Levy A Tampa-area company called “Federal Verification Co.,” which operates under “dozens of names,” according to the author of this exposé on a local television station, has filed a defamation lawsuit against its online critics, and is using vague allegations about defamation on a number of sites as an excuse for a […]