Law Commons^™

Dirty Debts Sold Dirt Cheap, Dalie Jimenez

Dalie Jimenez

More than 77 million Americans have a debt in collections. Many of these debts will be sold to debt buyers for pennies, or fractions of pennies, on the dollar. This Article details the perilous path that debts travel as they move through the collection ecosystem. Using a unique dataset of 84 consumer debt purchase and sale agreement, it examines the manner in which debts are sold, oftentimes as simple data on a spreadsheet, devoid of any documentary evidence. It finds that in many contracts, sellers disclaim all warranties about the underlying debts sold or the information transferred. Sellers also sometimes …

Reforming Preference Law, Dalie Jimenez

Dalie Jimenez

This article responds to Brook Gotberg's proposal to do away with preference liability in certain Chapter 11 cases and provides empirical evidence of preferential transfers in consumer Chapter 7 cases.

National Roundtable On Consumer And Employment Dispute Resolution: Consumer Arbitration Roundtable Summary Report, Thomas J. Stipanowich, Nancy Walsh, Lisa Blomgren Bingham, Lawrence R. Mills

Thomas J. Stipanowich

This report is a summary of the discussions at the Consumer Arbitration Roundtable held at Pepperdine University on February 2-4, 3012 and co-sponsored by Pepperdine School of Law, The Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution, and Penn State University, Dickinson School of Law. It was prepared by members of the Planning Committee.

The Arbitration Fairness Index: Using A Public Rating System To Skirt The Legal Logjam And Promote Fairer And More Effective Arbitration Of Employment And Consumer Disputes, Thomas J. Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

Recent Supreme Court decisions have heightened concerns about the degree of effective judicial oversight of consumer and employment arbitration under binding predispute agreements. Efforts to address such concerns are largely stymied by a political logjam. Because binding arbitration serves as the adjudicative backdrop for many kinds of consumer disputes or employer-employee conflict, the choice of arbitration and the kind of justice available under arbitration agreements may be every bit as important as consumer warranties and other substantive rights and remedies. Yet consumers and employees tend to know very little about arbitration and how it affects their rights and obligations; arbitration …

Mortgage Modification, Equitable Subordination, And The Honest But Unfortunate Creditor, Juliet Moringiello

Juliet M Moringiello

Mortgage foreclosures are at an all-time high and property values in many parts of the country have declined precipitously. Yet bankruptcy, which is often a last resort for individuals in financial distress, provides little relief to a homeowner who finds that her mortgage debt exceeds the value of her home. The reason for bankruptcy’s inadequacy in this regard is the Bankruptcy Code’s prohibition on the modification of home mortgages, a prohibition that became part of bankruptcy law in 1978, when most home mortgage loans were 30-year fixed rate loans made by savings and loan associations. While most secured loans can …

Sailing A Sea Of Doubt: A Critique Of The Rule Of Reason In U.S. Antitrust Law, Jesse W. Markham Jr.

Jesse Markham

The purpose of the article is to offer a critique of the rule of reason, tracing its disintegration from its original articulation 100 years ago in Standard Oil Co. v. United States, 221 U.S. 1, 60 (1911). The article then describes a construct for restoring transparency and content to the rule of reason. The rule of reason is the default standard for assessing restraints under the Sherman Act. The role for the rule of reason has expanded in recent years as the Supreme Court has reversed a number of per se rules, thus relegating additional categories of restraints to the …

Revelation And Reaction: The Struggle To Shape American Arbitration, Thomas J. Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

In this article, Professor Stipanowich explores recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court and the implications for the respective domains of courts of law and arbitration tribunals regarding so-called “gateway” determinations surrounding the enforcement of arbitration agreements and the contracts of which they are a part. The decisions address the complex interplay between federal substantive law focusing on questions of arbitrability, a body of law defined and expanded by the Court under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), and the law of the states and bring into play competing judicial philosophies of contractual assent and contrasting views about the balance between …

The Third Arbitration Trilogy: Stolt-Nielsen, Rent-A-Center, Concepcion And The Future Of American Arbitration, Thomas J. Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

For the third time in the modern era, a triad of key Supreme Court decisions represents a milestone in American arbitration. In this highly controversial “Third Arbitration Trilogy,” the U.S. Supreme Court aggressively expands the “revealed” penumbra of substantive arbitration law under the Federal Arbitration Act and shores up the bulwarks of private, binding dispute resolution under standardized contracts of adhesion binding employees and consumers. In Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International, 130 S. Ct. 1758 (2010), the Court, against the backdrop of an international commercial contract scheme and a unique procedural scenario, draws upon the wellspring of divined “federal substantive …

Warranting Data Security, Juliet Moringiello

Juliet M Moringiello

Massive data security breaches have grabbed headlines in the past few years. The data thieves responsible for these breaches have stolen the credit and debit card data of customers of retailers such as TJ Maxx, DSW Shoe Warehouse, BJ’s Wholesale Club, and the Hannaford grocery store chain. A thief in control of this payment card data, which can include debit and credit card numbers, expiration dates, security codes and personal identification numbers, has the ability to open new credit accounts and make charges on existing consumer accounts. These data breaches leave individuals fearful that their personal information will be used …

Asset Specificity And Transaction Structures: A Case Study Of @Home Corporation, Brian Jm Quinn

Brian JM Quinn

This is a case study of asset specific investments, a class of transactions that is well understood in the context of economic theory but that is under-analyzed empirically. Because specific investments are particular to a single location, use or customer, their next best use is of much lower value than the use for which they are initially intended. Consequently, asset specific investments face the threat of ex post opportunism and allocative inefficiency. This contracting problem is particularly difficult when firms that are otherwise rivals must coordinate individual investments to create a shared resource. In such cases, generating credible expectations of …

Arbitration: The "New Litigation", Thomas J. Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

Today, binding arbitration procedures are employed in a wider variety of contracts than at any time in our nation's history, and arbitration has become a wide-ranging surrogate for court trial of civil disputes. As a result, arbitration is subjected to unprecedented stresses and strains, and it is fair to say that arbitration has never been subject to wider criticism. Once advocates promoted arbitration as a means of avoiding the contention, cost and expense of court trial; economy, efficiency and the opportunity to fashion true alternatives to litigation are still associated with conventional perceptions of arbitration. Yet today business arbitration is …

A Study Of Interest, John Gotanda

John Y Gotanda

In recent years, a number of tribunals, mainly those deciding investment disputes, have re-examined traditional practices concerning the awarding of interest, particularly whether interest should be awarded at market rates and on a compounded basis. However, many tribunals deciding transnational contracts disputes continue to follow the practice of applying national laws on interest, which often results in the application of domestic statutory interest rates calling for a fixed rate of interest to accrue on a simple as opposed to compound basis. These statutory rates often do not change to reflect economic conditions and thus may under compensate or over compensate …

Restating Restitution: A Study In Contemporary Common Law Conceptualism, Chaim Saiman

Chaim Saiman

The ALI’s Restatement (Third) of Restitution provides one of the most interesting expressions of contemporary legal conceptualism. This paper explores the theory and practice of post-realist conceptualism through a review and critique of the Restatement. At the theoretical level, the paper develops a typology of different forms of conceptualism, and shows that the Restatement has more in common with the high formalism of the nineteenth century than with contemporary modes of private law discourse. At the level of substantive doctrine, the paper explains why labels in fact make a difference, and assesses which recoveries are more (and less) likely under …

Awarding Damages Under The United Nations Convention On The International Sale Of Goods: A Matter Of Interpretation, John Gotanda

John Y Gotanda

This article seeks to further a great aspiration of international law, providing a uniform set of rules governing trade. To this end, it offers a new method of interpreting the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods that would foster greater uniformity among decisions calculating damages.

Claims for damages in transnational contract disputes often involve millions of dollars. While the Convention provides for the awarding of damages, the relevant articles set forth only the most basic framework for calculating damages. To resolve unsettled issues concerning the calculation of damages, courts and tribunals have turned to domestic rules, instead …

Recovering Lost Profits In International Disputes, John Gotanda

John Y Gotanda

Claims for lost profits in international disputes often involve millions of dollars. Because national laws on the awarding of lost profits are typically vague and determining the amount of lost profits that a claimant is owed often requires a tribunal to examine complex economic and financial data, these claims raise arguably the most complicated issues for a tribunal deciding a transnational contract dispute. This has resulted in awards of lost profits that seem inconsistent or arbitrary. This article thoroughly examines the awarding of future lost profit damages in transnational contact disputes. It contains a comparative study of laws on the …

Lex Mercatoria And Legal Pluralism: A Late Thirteenth-Century Treatise And Its Afterlife, Daniel Coquillette, Mary Elizabeth Basile, Jane Fair Bestor, Charles Donahue Jr.

Daniel R. Coquillette

Lex Mercatoria is the earliest known treatment of what a later age would call “the law merchant”. This work provides important insights into the legal framework of English commerce in the reign of Edward

The Multi-Door Contract And Other Possibilities, Thomas J. Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

The pressure of recent legislative, judicial and administrative developments and increasing awareness of the possibilities of other alternatives is encouraging unprecedented experimentation in the consensual arena. As courts and agencies have experimented with a range of solutions to more effectively address the many and varied controversies presented to them, litigators have been exposed to the possibilities of purposive third party intervention prior to adjudication. At the same time, nonlawyers have recoiled from the perceived high costs of “Total Process” in the litigation mode and have become more proactive in their approaches to conflict. Gradually, both these trends are feeding, together …

Incipit Lex Mercatoria, Que, Quando, Ubi, Inter Quos Et De Quibus Sit: El Tratado De Lex Mercatoria En El Little Red Book De Bristol, Daniel Coquillette

Daniel R. Coquillette

No abstract provided.

The Civilian Writers Of Doctors' Commons, London: Three Centuries Of Juristic Innovation In Comparative, Commercial And International Law, Daniel Coquillette

Daniel R. Coquillette

No abstract provided.

Rethinking American Arbitration, Thomas J. Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

In this 1987 article, Professor Stipanowich extensively analyzes data from an unprecedented broad-based survey on contract-based commercial arbitration in the United States. The study, based on a survey by the ABA Forum on the Construction Industry, provides considerable insight into experiences and perceptions of American attorneys regarding arbitration and litigation of construction and engineering disputes. It also summarizes and compares data developed in earlier studies of arbitration practice and procedure and suggests possible new directions for arbitration procedures.

Arbitration And The Multiparty Dispute: The Search For Workable Solutions, Thomas J. Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

In this article, Professor Stipanowich explores the legal and practical problems associated with arbitration of commercial disputes involving multiple parties. He examines relevant legislation and judicial decisions as well as arbitration procedures aimed at facilitating consolidation of claims among multiple parties in a single arbitration hearing as well as joinder and “vouching in” of parties. He proposes the passage of legislation adapting provisions of the California Arbitration Act as a means of more effectively addressing these issues—a proposal that was later effectively adopted in a section of the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act.

Punitive Damages In Arbitration: Garrity V. Lyle Stuart, Inc. Reconsidered, Thomas J. Stipanowich

Thomas J. Stipanowich

In this article, Professor Stipanowich discusses the evolution of arbitration as a wide-ranging “surrogate” for civil trial and the debate over arbitrators’ power to levy awards of punitive or exemplary damages. He exhaustively summarizes and analyzes relevant court decisions, policy and practical concerns.