A dispute over a two-year statute of limitations brought the city of Ventura County before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals this week. The city has accused Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Chase Bank of making discriminatory loans against Latino and African-American borrowers in the city. The loans those borrowers were offered were more expensive than loans offered to similarly-situated white people, and those more expensive loans, in turn, ended up in more foreclosures. If true, that would violate the federal Fair Housing Act, and the city filed lawsuits under that law. The theory was that the extra foreclosures among minority homeowners led to a cascade of plummeting property values in minority areas. The big banks’ behavior not only cost the city property tax revenue but also left it on the hook for policing and maintenance in the foreclosure-devastated areas. The total cost of foreclosure blight and unfair lending in this case? An…Read More
Part of the American dream for many families is going to college or sending your children to college for the chance at a more prosperous life. The unfortunate reality for many people is that college is simply unaffordable, unless they want to take on a giant student loan. Did you know that over the last 45 years, the median income for a household has only increased about 10%, while the cost of attending a public college has increased by 530%? The math simply doesn’t work out. Current legislation before the California legislature is attempting to bring attention to this problem and offer a chance at free tuition for California residents. Titled “Renewing the California Dream”, Assembly Member Susan Eggman has filed Bill 1356 with co-authors Shirley Weber and Rob Bonta. This bill proposes to add a 1% tax to all households with incomes higher than $1 million. This money, about $2.2 billion total, would go…Read More
College is supposed to be an exciting time. We have been taught our entire lives that in order to make more money and provide a better life for ourselves and or families, we should go to college. In other words, if we dedicate ourselves and work hard, we can improve our situations. It is the American way. Unfortunately, as attorneys at Moss Bollinger, we have seen that some colleges are far too eager to prey on people who are just trying to get ahead in life. There are numerous ways that for-profit colleges have been demonstrated to mislead prospective students. The most glaring is by spending millions of dollars advertising promises of better, higher paying jobs if you graduate from their college. Do you remember DeVry’s advertisements of a 90% job placement rate and 15% higher salaries? Those misleading advertisements cost them $100 million after the Federal Government sued them to stop. In addition, some…Read More
Last year, for-profit college ITT closed its doors and entered bankruptcy proceedings. This was a stunning fall for a massive, nation-wide college that seemed too big to fail. Earlier this year, a group of former students intervened in ITT’s federal bankruptcy proceedings in an attempt to give a face to the “hundreds of thousands” of students that ITT “defrauded” over the years. In their intervention, they provided the stunning testimonials of former students and employees who had endured and witnessed years of misconduct. Among the misconduct was ITT’s cavalier and sometimes predatory efforts to induce prospective students into taking out massive student loans to attend ITT. Here are some of their statements: A student (number 8011) who attended ITT in Alabama wrote: “When I started I was told that my payments would be $50 a month for my private and federal loans, My private loans were closer to $500 and my federal $200 a month.…Read More
Earlier this month, a convenience store in Salem, New Hampshire, was ordered to pay $18,222 in back wages and another $18,222 in damages to 11 former employees. This was the result of unpaid overtime wages the employer hid from the government for years. In this situation, the employees knew that they were being treated unfairly, but did not believe they could do anything about it. Instead of seeking outside help, many of the employees simply looked for work elsewhere. If you are in similar circumstances, you don’t have to wait for the U.S. Department of Labor to take notice. Instead, you can file a complaint against your employer. As with the New Hampshire convenience store example, the first step when you notice a violation is to attempt to address it with your employer. This allows them the opportunity to remedy the situation before it is escalated. If your employer is not receptive to discussing the…Read More
For-profit colleges have had a controversial history since their numbers exploded following World War II. Soldiers had just returned from war and the Federal government had established the G.I. Bill to provide money for soldiers to go to college. This had many people seeing dollar signs, and many “fly-by-night” for-profit colleges opened and closed, stealing hard-earned military benefits and leaving veterans with nothing to show for it. For-profit colleges are still around today, and remain controversial due to allegations of false advertisement of job statistics and predatory recruitment and lending practices. With this history in mind, it has surprised many that Purdue University purchased Kaplan University. For those unfamiliar, Purdue is a well-respected public non-profit university. Kaplan is a for-profit college with fifteen campuses that primarily focuses on offering online classes. For Purdue, the move represents an effort to diversify from physical campuses and gain a greater foothold in the market of online colleges. University…Read More
Earlier this year, a former employee of a Nike store in San Clemente, California, filed a legal complaint against the company, alleging a number of labor law violations. In the weeks since, the scope of the case has quickly expanded; Nike now faces a class action suit that could include all current and former nonexempt employees who worked in California-based Nike retail stores in the last four years. Were Employees Making Less Than Minimum Wage? The legal proceedings began in February, when a former worker noted that Nike failed to provide itemized wage statements and did not adequately inform employees about their sick leave policy. Yet the lawsuit has come to center around the issue of employee uniforms. Namely, the plaintiffs claim that store employees were required to buy new uniforms roughly four times a year, so that the clothes they wore to work reflected Nike’s most up-to-date retail offerings. Many of the affected employees…Read More
What happens when an enormous, national college, like ITT Technical Institute goes bankrupt? Bad things. One result is that former students can apply for federal student loan forgiveness. It has been estimated that taxpayers will ultimately have to pay $500 million because of ITT’s closure. If that isn’t bad enough, former students harmed by ITT’s deceptive practices will have an uphill battle to seek legal recourse against the college. Students Intervene In ITT Bankruptcy Proceedings In January 2017, former ITT students filed a legal intervention into ITT’s federal bankruptcy proceedings. In it, they sought to represent the “hundreds of thousands” of students “defrauded” by ITT. As part of their pleadings, they attached more than a thousand pages of testimonials from former students and whistleblowers. Their remarkable statements were separated by topic, including: An ITT degree was a disadvantage in the job market ITT guaranteed job placement ITT misrepresented job placement and earnings statistics ITT downplaying…Read More
Employees have many rights in the state of California, which offers some of the strongest protections against employer misconduct in the country. When your rights have been violated by your employer, you should seek legal advice. At Moss Bollinger, we seek to stand up to businesses on behalf of employees. If you feel that your employer has violated your rights, call (310) 982-2291 to set up a consultation. When you meet with an attorney for the first time, it is important to prepare the following: Come With A Clear Explanation Of Your Complaint While many people are unhappy with their employer or feel like they are not being treated well at work, an attorney can only help you if there has been a violation of an existing law. You will therefore need to be as specific as possible about your complaint. It may help you to create personal notes with a timeline of specific dates and…Read More
Have you scheduled an initial consultation with an attorney? You are probably feeling some combination of nervous, anxious, and excited. You called an attorney for a reason and believe he or she can help resolve your legal issue. However, you don’t really know what to expect as television and movies have created some pre-conceived idea of what attorneys are like. Let me give you your first free piece of advice: you can relax. While there are definitely some colorful attorneys (i.e., attorneys with commercials where they walk away from explosions in slow motion), we’re mostly just normal people who work hard and want to do our jobs well. And remember, your attorney is here to work for you and wants to help you stand up for your rights. That is why it benefits both you and your attorney when you do some preparation before your meeting. Speaking as a consumer protection attorney, here are some…Read More
