| Volume 112 Number 3 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Have you been impacted by the recent flooding? The Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) may be able to provide you with assistance. Below is a link to their website where you can register online for assistance. You can also call FEMA at 1-800-621-FEMA (3362), or for the hearing/speech impaired at TTY: 1-800-462-7585. Click here for more.
Supreme Court Rules Underwater Second Mortgages Cannot be Discharged in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled that second mortgages secured by the property cannot be discharged in bankruptcy even when the property value is below what is owed on the first mortgage. In this case Florida homeowners whose properties were worth less than what they owed on their first mortgages declared bankruptcy under Chapter 7 and sought to have their second mortgages discharged on the basis that because of the drop in value, the second mortgages we no longer "secured" by the property. Dashing the hopes of the homeowners who argued that stripping the second mortgages might have made it possible to sell and perhaps pay off part of the first mortgage, the Supreme Court ruled that the second mortgages were still "secured" by the property, regardless of the property's value, and could not be discharged in Chapter 7. Click here for more.
Your Money
We all want to save money shopping, but most of us don't want to look "cheap" when we do. This link has some ideas on how to save while shopping without looking like a "cheapskate." Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
The United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a proposed class action which alleged that LinkedIn was a Consumer Reporting Agency (“CSA”) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”), and that LinkedIn violated the law with an online feature for businesses to check applicants’ references on the site without the applicants’ knowledge. The Plaintiffs unsuccessfully argued that the site’s “Reference Search” feature produced “Consumer Reports” (“CR”) under the law. The class representatives used LinkedIn to apply for jobs, alleged that they were denied employment opportunities after the potential employers connected with them on LinkedIn, and that LinkedIn’s provision of the “Reference Search” function to prospective employers violated the FCRA. The Court rejected this argument for multiple reasons, including the fact that the LinkedIn feature is excluded from the FCRA definition of “Consumer Report” because the applicants voluntarily provide the information with the intention of LinkedIn publishing it. The Court also held that because LinkedIn is not a CSA which gathers CR to sell to 3rd parties for a fee, it could not create a CR. Sweet v. LinkedIn Corp., 5:14-cv-04531-PSG (N.D. Cal. April 14, 2015). Click here for more.