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Case Summaries

Consumer Protection

[09/04] Am. Bankers Ass'n v. Lockyer
After remand, in a case interpreting California's Financial Information Privacy Act (FIPA) in light of the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), a ruling that the FRCA entirely preempted FIPA section 4053(b)(1), which restricts the sharing of nonpublic consumer personal information between financial institutions and their affiliates, is reversed and remanded where the preempted portions of FIPA are severable, narrowing FIPA section 4053(b)(1) to exclude consumer report information as defined by the FCRA.

[09/04] Milavetz, Gallop & Milavetz v. US
In a case challenging application of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA), summary judgment for plaintiff is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) attorneys providing bankruptcy assistance are "debt relief agencies" under the BAPCPA, 11 U.S.C. section 526(a)(4) is unconstitutional as applied to these attorneys; but 2) sections 528(a)(4) and (b)(2) are constitutional.

[09/02] Sec. and Exch. Comm'n v. Wolfson
In a civil enforcement action in which the SEC alleged that defendants violated section 10(b) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934 and section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 in relation to material misstatements and omissions contained within a public company's periodic financial reports filed with the SEC, summary judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) the SEC need not establish that specific misstatements or omissions in a financial report can be publicly attributed to an individual defendant in order to prove liability for a violation; 2) because defendants caused misstatements and omissions to be made, and knew that the statements were calculated to reach investors, they could be held liable; 3) fraudulent statements are made "in connection with" the sale of securities when they are reasonably calculated to influence investors, and the misrepresentations are material to an investor's decision to buy or sell the security; and 4) the misstatements or omissions made by defendant occurred "in the offer or sale" of securities.

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