On September 19, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued an opinion illustrating the importance of careful drafting of arbitration agreements.
Following the holdings of many other courts, the Eleventh Circuit panel held that if an agreement is silent regarding the ability to arbitrate claims on a class basis, then it is up to courts
Illinois’ Biometric Information Protection Act (“BIPA”) requires entities collecting, using, and storing biometric data (such as face scans, retina scans, and fingerprint scans) to, among other things, inform and obtain consent from the owners of the data. Private entities storing an individual’s biometric information must also use a “reasonable standard of care” and treat the
In a case of first impression, the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan held that direct-to-voicemail messages qualify as a “call” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The Court’s opinion thus subjects another modern technology to the requirements of express consent and other strictures of the TCPA.
Defendant debt collector Dyck-O’Neal,
On July 13, 2018, in Dutta v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision granting summary judgment to State Farm in a putative Fair Credit Reporting Act class action. The decision presents another helpful application of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2016 Spokeo decision. The Dutta decision highlights
On June 21, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon dismissed a putative class action complaint alleging that a potential employer violated the disclosure and pre-adverse action notification requirements of the Fair Credit Reporting Act in Walker v. Fred Meyer Inc.[1] The Walker decision highlights several key lessons associated with FCRA class
On May 31, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a $150,000 sanctions award against three consumer attorneys and their law firms for bad faith conduct and misrepresentations.
The opinion reads like a detective story and lays out, in the Court’s own words, “a mosaic of half-truths, inconsistencies, mischaracterizations, exaggerations, omissions, evasions, and failures to
On May 29, the Ninth Circuit ruled that an end-user’s misuse of reported information does not render a credit reporting agency’s report inaccurate for purposes of liability under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Court affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in the putative class action case brought against a national credit
On May 21, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch, held that employers can include a clause in their employment contracts that requires employees to arbitrate their disputes individually and to waive the right to resolve those disputes through class actions and other joint proceedings. The Court ruled such
In Echlin v. PeaceHealth, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a debt collection agency meaningfully participated in collection efforts even if it did not have authority to settle the account, did not receive payments, and was not involved in collection beyond sending two collection letters. Accordingly, the collection agency
On April 23, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency Bank added its support to Bank of America’s efforts to convince the Ninth Circuit to review a March 2 panel decision holding that the National Bank Act does not preempt a California state law requiring the payment of 2% interest on escrow accounts. “The