Yesterday, the Center, along with a cavalcade of prominent consumer, worker and advocacy organizations, filed an amicus brief urging the California Supreme Court to implement recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and reject an arbitration-specific version of equitable estoppel that allows corporate defendants to enforce arbitration clauses against consumers with whom they never signed a contract....
Yesterday, the Center, along with our co-counsel – Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS), California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity (CAMEO), East Bay Community Law Center, Impact Fund, Legal Aid At Work, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, and Public Justice – filed an amicus brief ...
At the urging of the Center on behalf of nine legal services and consumer advocacy organizations, along with the plaintiffs, the California Court of Appeal has ordered publication of its recent decision in Jones v. Solgen Construction, LLC The previously unpublished decision – which may now be cited – provides guidance to courts and litigants in addressing the growing problem of fraud in door-to-door residential solar panel sales.
Last week, a federal court in Los Angeles upheld regulations promulgated by the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) that require sales-based financing providers to disclose their products' APR and other costs to borrowers, typically small businesses and micro-entrepreneurs. The Center, along with our co-counsel Public Counsel and fellow amici California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity (CAMEO), Responsible Business Lending...
The Center, along with our co-counsel Public Counsel, California Association for Microenterprise Opportunity, the Responsible Business Lending Coalition, and the Office of Kat Taylor, filed an amicus brief in the Central District of California in support of a California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) regulation requiring sales-based financing providers to disclose their APRs and...
Last week, the Center, along with our co-counsel Bay Area Legal Aid and OneJustice and ten other legal services organizations, filed an amicus brief urging the California Supreme Court to ensure that consumers with debt collection lawsuits can have their day in court when they...
Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court heard argument in USDA Rural Development Rural Housing Service v. Kirtz, a case that will decide whether the federal government can claim sovereign immunity as a defense against lawsuits brought under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice, along with the National Consumer Law Center, Public Justice, and the Housing Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale Law School, filed an...
Over the past several years and especially during the pandemic, companies have increasingly offered automatically renewing subscription-based services to their customers. After the initial subscription period (say, a year) for which the customer pays, the company automatically charges the customer for another term. These subscription services include an enormous range of businesses, from shopping sites like Amazon Prime, to entertainment streaming platforms like Netflix, to newspapers and apps and just about any other industry you can name.
Like so many of you, the UC Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice is dismayed by the decision from the U.S. Supreme Court striking down President Biden’s student loan debt relief plan. We join in the deep disappointment of the millions of Americans who hoped for some relief from the burden of student debt, which today eclipses $1.78 trillion dollars and has prevented millions of people from purchasing a home, launching a business, or starting a family.
It is well established in California that the state’s Lemon Law applies to vehicles that are still under the manufacturer’s warranty, whether those cars are new or used. Or, at least, it was well established until an appellate court in Southern California upended that consensus this spring.
Last week, the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice, joined by nine other national...
