| Volume 127 Number 3 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
When it comes to privacy, you don’t have much at work. Don’t say anything in a phone call or email or do anything at your desk, that you don’t want your employer to see. Click here for more.
For-Profit College ITT Shuts Down
One of the country's largest for-profit colleges, ITT Technical Institute, has closed down all of its campuses. This comes weeks after the Department of Education announced new restrictions on ITT that would make all of its students ineligible for federal loans. “We believe the government’s action was inappropriate and unconstitutional, however, with the ITT Technical Institutes ceasing operations, it will now likely rest on other parties to understand these reprehensible actions and to take action to attempt to prevent this from happening again,” the company said. The shutdown will affect 35,000 students and 8,000 employees. Students who were enrolled at ITT in the last 120 days will be eligible to have their federal loans forgiven. Last year, Corinthian Colleges, Inc. also closed its schools and filed bankruptcy. Click here for more.
Your Money
Are you looking to relocate to a new city for a job? Before you do compare the cost of living in the city you currently live in and the city you want to move to. Your salary in one city may not go as far in another city. For example, if you make $80,000 a year in Houston you would need to make at least $113,000 in Los Angeles to afford a comparable lifestyle. Cost of living varies from each region and everything from groceries to health care can cost more. Use the below calculator to estimate how much you need to make before you move. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
State usury laws apply to loans that originate with a tribal lender, but serviced by a state consumer lender. A California federal district court granted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau partial summary judgment for its claim that consumer lender CashCall committed deceptive acts in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act by charging illegal interest rates. The court's decision rejects CashCall's "tribal model" of lending, in which it attempted to avoid state usury laws by using a company based in an Indian reservation to originate its loans and claim that tribal law, not state law, governed the loans. In its ruling, the district court held that although the loans originated from a tribal company, the true lender was CashCall, because under the arrangement between the companies, it was CashCall's money that was at risk. Thus, the court held, there was no basis for applying tribal law to the loans because the loan transactions bore no substantial relationship to the tribe. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. CashCall, Inc., et. al. Click here for more.