eplawecki

Firm/Organization: Saul Ewing Arnstein & Lehr
Blogs: Bad Faith Sentinel, Construction Industry Counselor, Consumer Finance Litigation Bulletin, The Regulatory Roundup, Whistleblower Wire

Latest Articles

House Passes First-Ever Standalone Cannabis Reform Bill, SAFE Act Would Provide Cannabis Businesses With Much Needed Banking Access On September 25, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Secure And Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act (SAFE Act) by vote of 321 to 103. If it passes the U.S. Senate and is signed into law, it would prohibit federal banking regulators from penalizing a depository institution simply because the bank provides services to legitimate marijuana-related…
Trump Administration Seeking Presidential Authority to Remove CFPB Director, asking Supreme Court to Decide As the CFPB is currently structured, the head of the CFPB may only be ousted by the President for good cause. However, the Trump Administration is asking the Supreme Court to take up a case[1] on certiorari to decide the issue of the CFPB’s constitutionality, ultimately seeking to allow the President the power to fire the head of the CFPB…
11th Circuit Finds Receipt Of A Single Unsolicited Text Message Fails To Confer Article III Standing Under The TCPA In Salcedo v. Hanna, No. 17-14077 (11th Cir. Aug. 28, 2019), the 11th Circuit considered whether receipt of a single unsolicited text message was sufficient to confer Article III standing to sue for a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”). The court found it was not and in doing so, it rejected decisions…
CFPB Continues Its Enforcement In Less Than Traditional Areas of Consumer Protection; This Time it is Remittances The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced on Tuesday, August 27, 2019 a consent order entered into with Maxitransfers Corp., a Texas-based money transmitter, following its investigation of Maxitransfers’ compliance with the Remittance Rule’s regulations concerning transmission error-resolution policies and consumer disclosures. The Remittance Rule was promulgated pursuant to The Dodd Frank Act and implements requirements of…
NJ Establishes Permanent Hemp Program, Friendlier Environment for CBD Than NY and PA On August 9, 2019, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed A5322 into law, making the Garden State the latest to establish a permanent program for the cultivation, handling, processing, transport, and sale of hemp and hemp-derived products. A5322 is immediately effective and it repeals New Jersey’s prior Industrial Hemp Pilot Program, which went into effect in 2018. Consistent with the Agriculture Improvement…
NJ Establishes Permanent Hemp Program, Friendlier Environment for CBD Than NY and PA On August 9, 2019, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed A5322 into law, making the Garden State the latest to establish a permanent program for the cultivation, handling, processing, transport, and sale of hemp and hemp-derived products. A5322 is immediately effective and it repeals New Jersey’s prior Industrial Hemp Pilot Program, which went into effect in 2018. Consistent with the Agriculture Improvement…
New York Department of Financial Services’ Title Insurance Regulation Vacated, Again? On to the Court of Appeals On August 5, 2019 a New York state court, on remand from the Appellate Division, again determined that Section 228.2(c) of the New York Department of Financial Services’ (DFS) Title Insurance Regulation was unconstitutionally vague and thus could possibility be applied arbitrarily and capriciously. Section 228.2(c) requires that title insurance underwriters and agencies making political or charitable donations…
Hamilton v. Yavapai Community College District: District of Arizona Addresses FCA’s State of Mind Requirement Participants in federal programs take note: the government’s specific representations that a program is compliant may help insulate you from False Claims Act liability. But, be wary of general guidance, which may not offer you the same protection. Background: A Community College’s Compliance Efforts  Defendant Yavapai Community College (“Yavapai”) offered a flight training program, among other programs. When military veterans…
New York Bill Targeting Robocalls Could Significantly Increase Exposure for Financial Services Companies A New York law aimed at curbing robocalls could significantly increase risk for companies relying on auto-dialers or prerecorded calls to contact customers. The “Robocall Prevention Act” would ban calls and text messages using equipment from numbers stored on a list, or equipment that uses random or sequential number generators, unless the caller shows that “substantial additional human intervention” to…
In Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Seila Law LLC, 2019 WL 1985350 (9th Cir. May 6, 2019), the Ninth Circuit followed the earlier decision of the D.C. Circuit in PHH Corp. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, 881 F.3d 75 (D.C. Cir. 2018) (en banc), in holding that the single-director structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is constitutional. The constitutional challenge was raised by a law firm, Seila Law LLC, that provided debt…