Last month, the North American Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) approved a settlement agreement between the Western Electric Coordinating Council (“WECC”) and an unnamed power company that imposed a penalty of $2.7 million on the power company for improper cybersecurity oversight after the company inadvertently allowed critical cyber security data to be exposed online for 70 days.
Going slow and steady may work out for you if you’re a tortoise competing against an overly confident hare. However, if you’re in the mobile device industry and have been lagging on sending out security updates, it’s time to pick up the pace. A new Federal Trade Commission report issued last month found that while
Introduced in the House of Representatives on December 7, 2017, by Rep. Thomas A. Garret, Jr. (R-Va.), the Student Security Act of 2017 aims to provide loan forgiveness to borrowers of federal student loans who agree to delay eligibility to collect Social Security benefits. In its current form, the Act would grant $550 in student
In early March, the Department of Education, led by Secretary Elisabeth Dee DeVos, began informing some former students at campuses once owned by the now-defunct Corinthian Colleges, Inc. that it will forgive only fifty percent or less of their federal student loans. In fact, DeVos had announced her intent to adopt such a plan, a
In general, the federal government provides student loans to qualified Americans regardless of their credit history. To facilitate repayment and avoid borrower default, it offers numerous programs, including income-based repayment schemes and, for now, loan forgiveness for public service. Naturally, once a borrower defaults, the government enjoys an extraordinary range of powers for securing
On March 15, Governor Jay Inslee of Washington signed the Washington Student Education Loan Bill of Rights. This law had been in the works since 2017 when a report, released by Attorney General Bob Ferguson in December, documented significant disparities across gender, income, age, and race in student loan borrowing and highlighted a handful
A companion to a bill sponsored by Rep. Robert Scott (D-Va.), America’s College Promise Act, or “ACPA”, introduced in the United States Senate on March 1, strives to minimize the financial hurdles that have induced an extraordinary reliance on private and federal student loans by over 44 million Americans. This previously-introduced bill currently boasts
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently held that an agreement between a district attorney and private law firms to litigate actions in the name of the district attorney based on a contingency fee agreement does not violate due process.
The decision came after Eric Heryford, District Attorney for Trinity County, California, filed a suit
Nearly a decade after the financial crisis of 2007-08, the Senate recently advanced the most significant overhaul of the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, signed into federal law by President Barack H. Obama on July 21, 2010. Specifically, on March 14, 2018, the Senate passed the Economic Growth, Regulatory Relief,
Please join us on Tuesday, March 20th from 3:30 – 5:00 ET, as Troutman lawyers who have been on the front lines offer their take on the implications for litigation and compliance arising from the new appeals decision regarding the scope of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).
On March 16, 2018, the U.S.