| Volume 127 Number 8 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
Do you want to learn more about your legal rights? More than 50,000 people have attended the free classes of the People’s Law School. The next session will be held at the University off Houston Law Center on Saturday, October 1st. Click below for more information or to register. Click here for more.
Prepaid Cards to be More Regulated
The prepaid card, which is serviced by major card network brands, is becoming increasingly popular to consumers and regulators. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has released new regulations on the prepaid card companies. To protect consumers the CFPB will require prepaid-card companies to provide more detailed fee disclosures and easier access to account information, limit consumer losses when funds are lost or stolen, and resolve errors in a timely fashion. Nearly $300 billion is expected to be loaded onto prepaid cards this year, almost double the amount in 2010. Click here for more.
Your Money
A rise in student loan defaults means that more scammers will try to take advantage of consumers. The Consumer Financial Protection reports an increase in the amount of scammers who promise to lower your student loan payments or even forgive debt. However, ads for these services do not mention upfront fees of $600 to $1,200. And these services do not actually help the consumer. Many of these scammer ads, texts, postcards, and emails have the Department of Education logo or reference the "Obama New Student Loan Forgiveness Program." There is no such relationship with the federal government and there is no such Obama program. Additionally these scammers are buying information from data brokers to identify your actual loans and balances. Remember, the government doesn't send out emails or use advertising to encourage borrowers to consolidate debt or seek other debt relief. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Traditional arbitration waiver analysis does not apply where there is a substantial change in the law. The Third Circuit held that the traditional waiver analysis is not applicable where it would have been futile to try to exercise the right to compel individual arbitration that was unenforceable under then-existing law. After confirming that it would have been futile under then-existing law for the Defendants to have sought to compel individual arbitration prior to the Concepcion decision, the court found that the Defendants could not be penalized for failing to pursue a right that did not exist under New Jersey law. Because they had sought individual arbitration shortly after Concepcion had been decided and no prejudice had resulted therefrom, the Defendants had not waived their right to compel individual arbitration. Chassen, et al. v. Fidelity National Financial, Inc., et al (3rd Cir. 2016). Click here for more.