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Full-Text Articles in Law
Wrecking Ball Disguised As Law Reform: Alec's Model Act On Private Enforcement Of Consumer Protection Statutes, Dee Pridgen
Wrecking Ball Disguised As Law Reform: Alec's Model Act On Private Enforcement Of Consumer Protection Statutes, Dee Pridgen
Dee Pridgen
The consumer protection statutes of every state are currently under attack by a proposed model law that would effectively eliminate the critical private enforcement provisions that give these laws their power. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has produced a purported law reform vehicle that is actually a wrecking ball to destroy one of the building blocks of consumer protection, namely the private enforcement of state unfair and deceptive practices acts. It does this by systematically weakening each and every provision of these laws, such as lower burdens of proof, special damages, and attorney’s fees, that were designed to provide …
Dirty Debts Sold Dirt Cheap, Dalie Jimenez
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
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.
Putting Some Teeth In Tila: From Disclosure To Substantive Regulation In The Mortgage Reform And Anti-Predatory Lending Act Of 2010, Dee Pridgen
Dee Pridgen
No abstract provided.
National Roundtable On Consumer And Employment Dispute Resolution: Consumer Arbitration Roundtable Summary Report, Thomas J. Stipanowich, Nancy Walsh, Lisa Blomgren Bingham, Lawrence R. Mills
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
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 …
The Disappearing Opt-Out Right In Punitive Damages Class Actions, Richard Frankel
The Disappearing Opt-Out Right In Punitive Damages Class Actions, Richard Frankel
Richard H. Frankel
One of the most pressing issues in punitive damages law today is how to protect defendants from multiple punitive damages awards for a single course of conduct, while still ensuring that wronged plaintiffs can recover punitive damages. Numerous commentators have proposed non-opt-out class actions for punitive damages as the best solution to the multiple punishment problem because they subject defendants to a single collective punitive damages award that can be distributed equitably across all injured plaintiffs. This Article takes a contrary view. It argues that mandatory classes improperly deprive class plaintiffs of their right to opt out and pursue their …
Sailing A Sea Of Doubt: A Critique Of The Rule Of Reason In U.S. Antitrust Law, Jesse W. Markham Jr.
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
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
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 …
Arbitration: The "New Litigation", Thomas J. Stipanowich
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 …
Measuring Identity Theft At Top Banks (Version 1.5), Chris Hoofnagle
Measuring Identity Theft At Top Banks (Version 1.5), Chris Hoofnagle
Chris Jay Hoofnagle
There is no reliable way for consumers, regulators, and businesses to assess the relative rates of identity fraud at major financial institutions. This lack of information prevents a consumer market for bank safety from emerging. As part of a multiple strategy approach to obtaining more actionable data on identity theft, the Freedom of Information Act was used to obtain complaint data submitted by victims in 2006 to the Federal Trade Commission. This complaint data identifies the institution where impostors established fraudulent accounts or affected existing accounts in the name of the victim. The data were aggregated and used to create …
From Credit Denial To Predatory Lending: The Challenge Of Sustaining Minority Homeownership
From Credit Denial To Predatory Lending: The Challenge Of Sustaining Minority Homeownership
Patricia A. McCoy
Years of discriminatory behavior against minority households have damaged their ability to build wealth. One of the most financially destructive practices endured by minority households is the excessive overpayment to finance a home purchase or access accumulated equity in a home. The market conditions that position blacks, and to a lesser extent, Latino households, to be the principal targets of predatory mortgage lending have their roots in decades of legally sanctioned housing market discrimination. Some minority households lack the financial knowledge or awareness to protect themselves. In other cases, years of discriminatory financial practices have contributed to rendering them ineligible …