The Ninth Circuit recently determined, in Pinnacle Rest. at Big Sky, LLC v. CH SP Acquisitions, LLC (In re Spanish Peaks Holdings II, LLC), 862 F.3d 1148 (9th Cir. 2017), that a sale of real property free and clear of liens and interests under Section 363(f) of the United States Bankruptcy Code, 11 U.S.C. § 363(f) (“Section 363(f)”), can terminate… Read More
In what should end a long-simmering legal brushfire, the Ninth Circuit held that the Federal Housing Finance Agency’s (“FHFA”) so-called “Federal Foreclosure Bar” preempts Nevada’s homeowners' association lien super-priority statute, thereby protecting Fannie/Freddie mortgage liens from being extinguished through foreclosure of later-recorded homeowners association liens. Berezovsky v. Moniz, et al., 869 F.3d 923 (9th Cir. 2017). Berezovsky purchased a home… Read More
On July 5, 2017, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt a blow to Provident Savings Bank, FSB (“Provident”) in a class action suit brought against Provident by mortgage underwriters who sued for overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”), 29 U.S.C. § 201, et seq. The Ninth Circuit agreed with plaintiffs that they had been misclassified by… Read More
With the recently alleged data breach of Equifax, the data security of financial institutions’ customer information is once again in the news. And once again, as with every data breach, a flurry of lawsuits has followed. The purpose of this article is to highlight one area of legal exposure with data breaches that applies only to financial institutions. Section 6285… Read More
“Resistance” is now the battle cry of the self-anointed defenders of consumer rights. But this is nothing new for the California Supreme Court, which for over 20 years has resisted the mandate in the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) to enforce arbitration agreements despite their collateral effect on class actions. Beginning with Southland Corp. v. Keating, 465 U.S. 1 (1984), and reaching… Read More
Automobile Finance Law in the Emerging Autonomous and Mobility Ecosystem, (S&W Financial Services Law White Paper) Read More
Joel L. Halverson will be presenting "Leveling the Playing Field - Contract Negotiation Strategies for Design Professionals" on Thursday, February 15, 2018. We are currently experiencing a “seller’s market” in which owners and developers are finding it to be a challenge to find good help. Construction professionals can take advantage of this economic climate to secure important contractual protections we… Read More
Rebecca Saelao and Megan Kelly from Severson’s San Francisco office and Scott Hyman and Rochelle Smith from Severson’s Orange County office attended the American Bar Association’s Consumer Financial Services Committee’s Winter Conference from January 6-9, 2018 in Park City, Utah. On January 7th, the Committee honored the passing of the Firm’s founder, James Werson, in 2017. Orange County Member-in-Charge, Scott… Read More
In this Article, Severson partners Rebecca Saelao and Scott Hyman discuss the effect of a class action plaintiff’s dismissal of claims or damages at the instruction of class counsel in order to conform their individual claim to the claims of the putative class and, purportedly, to better their chances for class certification. 2017 Claim Trimming Article Read More
California State and Federal Courts Have Different Class Certification Rules on Whether Putative Class-members Must Be Ascertainable (S&W Financial Services Law, Winter 2017) Read More
The Effect of Claim-Trimming on Class Certification in TCPA Cases, 71 Conf. Cons. Fin. L. Q. 83 (Winter 2017) Read More
Scott J. Hyman moderated a panel entitled “DEBT SERVICING AND COLLECTIONS IN THE MARKETPLACE LENDING & ALTERNATIVE FINANCING SPACE” at the Opal Marketplace Lending & Alternative Financing Summit, Monarch Beach Resort, Dana Point, CA. Read More
Some design-professionals regularly secure limitations of liability to their own great benefit as well as that of their insurers. Some despair that it is impossible and almost never try to establish any limits or boundaries. The very good news is that limitations of liability are real and valuable. More importantly, there are many roads to limiting liability beyond a generic… Read More
Gale A. Townsley spoke as a panelist for the ABA CLE series webinar “Driving the Next Generation: Update on Self-Driving Cars”, presented by the SciTech Committee on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. Ms. Townsley discussed the potential impact of driverless cars on the future of automobile insurance. Read More
Structure Magazine Article - Digital Stamping Read More
On November 3, 2017, Scott Hyman participated on a panel with a number of other distinguished lawyers from industry and the consumer bar about current class action and regulatory developments in Telephone Consumer Protection Act litigation. Mr. Hyman is a member of the Governing Committee for the Conference on Consumer Finance Law, and the TCPA panel is part of the… Read More
9th Circuit Finds that Directors’ & Officers’ Liability Insurance Policy Excludes Coverage for Claims Brought Under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act Read More
Certificate of Merit Law Gets Teeth! Read More
On October 13, 2017, Severson attorneys Scott Hyman, Kristin Walker-Probst, and David Berkley spoke at the California Financial Services Association’s 77th Annual Conference in Palm Springs on Current Developments in Automobile Finance. Privileged to have presented to CFSA annually for over 10 years, Severson attorneys offered hands-on insight into compliance, regulatory, and litigation issues currently facing automobile finance lenders doing… Read More
