Archive for January 2016

By: Monisha Rao In U.S. v. Falcon, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld that the Higher Education Technical Amendments of 1991 (“HETA”), which eliminated statutes of limitations on collecting defaulted student loans, did not violate student debtors’ due process rights when it allowed the U.S. Department of Education to collect…

By: Catriona Coppler Chicago taxi drivers (“drivers”) filed a putative class action against their employer, Chicago Carriage Cab Corporation (“defendants”), claiming that the defendants violated the Illinois Wage Payment and Collection Act (“IWPCA”).[1] The IWPCA provides employees with a “cause of action against employers for the timely and complete payment of earned wages.”[2] The drivers…

By: Shawn Marcum   The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit decided on December 22, 2016, whether the government acts unconstitutional when barring registration of disparaging trademarks under § 2(a) of the Lanham Act. The Court found that when the government denied registration of disparaging trademarks, it was refusing registration because it…

By: Catriona Coppler   In 2013, Michael Balboa was convicted of securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, and investment advisor fraud.[1] Balboa was sentenced to forty-eight months imprisonment and ordered to pay $390,243, 873.92 in restitution.[2] On appeal, in United States v. Balboa,[3] Balboa challenged the sufficiency…