With the internet has come an ever-growing wave of anonymous wrong-doing so businesses and individuals increasingly have to vindicate their rights by bringing a lawsuit against a fictitious entity and then, once the suit is filed, the victims can invoke the court’s subpoena power to discover the name(s) of the wrong-doers (with subpoenas to internet […]

It is common if not universal for loan documents to provide for attorneys’ fees for costs of enforcement in the event of default but also somewhat common for courts to be reluctant to award fees — often finding some way to deny requests or discount them substantially, for example. Judge Donovan Frank, however, in this […]

The Computer Fraud & Abuse Act (CFAA), a federal statute, recognizes private causes of action for individuals damaged by computer fraud. From the “plain meaning” of the words Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, one might not think that the law would apply to the admittedly annoying situation of receipt of unwanted SMS texts on one’s […]

Since at least 2007, some in the the mortgage lending industry have been concerned that the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (“HMDA”), which mandates data reporting regarding loan applications and loan terms, would be used by plaintiffs’ counsel as supposed evidence of racially biased mortgage lending decisions or mortgage lending terms. Yesterday, while not mentioning […]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit dealt a blow to Ameriprise Financial. Judges Wollman, Beam, and Riley reversed summary judgment that the U.S. District Court (D. Minn.) had entered in Ameriprise’s favor on claims brought by a handful of mutual funds. Under Section 36(b) of the Investment Company Act of 1940 (“ICA”), […]