| Volume 143 Number 29 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
New law offers substantial student loan relief. The CARES Act signed into law last week suspends payments and eliminates interest accrual for all federally-held student loans for six months, through September 30. These measures exclude private loans, privately-held FFEL loans and Perkins loans. The other five subsections of section 3513 mandate important additional relief. Click here for more.
Marriott announces second major data breach in two years
For the second time in two years, Marriott International has disclosed that it suffered a massive data breach. The most recent breach of consumer data, which was disclosed on Tuesday, affects roughly 5.2 million guests. Information compromised in the breach included names, contact details, and addresses. The hotel chain said the data may have been accessed starting in January via the login information of two employees. Affected customers received an email on Tuesday informing them of the discovery. Marriott has also set up a website where guests can submit a request to see if their information was involved in the breach. Click here for more.
Your Money
If you've lost work because of the coronavirus outbreak and fall behind on loan payments, loan modification could help you avoid default. Loan modifications are most common for secured loans, such as mortgages, but you may also be able to modify other types of loans. That could include personal loans or student loans. A loan modification can relieve some of the financial pressure you feel by lowering your monthly payments and stopping collection activity. But loan modifications are not foolproof. They could increase the cost of your loan and add derogatory remarks to your credit report. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Individual class members must show standing to recover damages. The Ninth Circuit found that each individual class member in a class action lawsuit was required to have standing to recover damages, but also agreed with the plaintiff that each of the 8,185 class members had standing. The court relied on the Supreme Court case Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540, 1543 (2016), and held that each class member was not required to show that TransUnion actually disclosed his or her credit report to a third party because TransUnion’s violation of the consumers’ statutory rights under the FCRA constituted a concrete injury sufficient to confer standing. Ramirez v. TransUnion LLC, No. 17-17244, 2020 WL 946973 (9th Cir. Feb. 27, 2020) Click here for more.