CONSUMER PROTECTION LAW
For students interested in consumer protection law, Chicago-Kent has a burgeoning consumer law focus. Chicago-Kent offers a diverse curriculum, speaker opportunities, student organization efforts, and student projects focusing on consumer law.
Chicago-Kent’s numerous consumer protection course offerings are listed below and include Consumer Health Benefits, Consumer Protection Law, Health Care Law, Products Liability, and a clinic focused on the interests of the consumer. The Consumer Affairs Practicum, in conjunction with the Chicago Legal Clinic, is a for-credit course in which students design strategies to protect the elderly and disabled in matters of consumer credit.
Many student organizations devoted to public interest issues work to protect consumers. Recent student projects have also included work by Chicago-Kent Honors Scholars on the development of www.youdontknowauctions.com, a Web site aimed at protecting online auction consumers from fraud, as well as another Web site aimed at protecting online consumers from identity theft.
Through their course work in practicum and clinical offerings and a continued exposure to consumer protection issues, students are able to gain practical experience and develop a greater understanding of the importance of consumer protection issues.
Chicago-Kent is actively working to enhance programming and awareness of consumer protection issues. In support of that mission, Chicago-Kent has an endowed consumer law fund to be used either for scholarships for students who show a demonstrated interest in consumer protection issues through their undergraduate studies or for a special symposium on consumer protection law. In addition, the Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Public Interest Award is granted to young alums who contribute to the public interest, including the protection of consumer welfare.
Curricular offerings relating to consumer protection law
Administrative Law A study of the legal problems involved in the creation, functioning, and control of government agencies (other than courts or legislatures) that engage in rule making or adjudication. Particular attention is given to the constitutional constraints on agency action, including those imposed by due process, separation of powers, and the nondelegation doctrine. The investigative functions of agencies and the timing, method, and scope of judicial review of an agency's actions also are covered. Three credit hours.
Agency Law This course addresses basic principles of agency law, particularly the doctrines associated with authority, vicarious responsibility, and fiduciary duty. It also addresses how agency principles and doctrines are applied in such areas as legal ethics, corporation law, contract law, civil procedure, criminal law, torts, and constitutional law. Two credit hours.
Antitrust A study of antitrust law concerning problems of monopolies, price fixing, horizontal and vertical restraints on trade and mergers. The major federal legislation in the field, including the Sherman Act and the Clayton Act, are considered in detail. Three credit hours.
Appellate Courts and Procedure Appellate courts make important case law decisions and supervise courts below them in the judicial hierarchy. This course will examine the functions of appeals and appellate courts, and the process of appellate review: appellate jurisdiction, standing to appeal, timing of review, vehicles for obtaining review, the breadth and depth of review, and appellate lawmaking. The course also will consider the structure of our appellate courts, and how those courts and Congress have responded, and may in the future respond, to the threat to function posed by the increasing volume of appeals. The course will acquaint students with the contemporary role of appellate counsel and with the U.S. Supreme Court's certiorari policies and practices. Although federal courts will be the main focus, many of the matters discussed also will be pertinent to state appellate systems. Three credit hours.
Complex Litigation A study of complex litigation involving multiple parties and multiple claims. By way of background, we consider joinder of parties and of claims generally, and treat transfer and consolidation of civil actions. We then emphasize all major aspects of class action litigation. The facets covered include ethical considerations, history and philosophy, federal subject matter jurisdiction, due process considerations, requirements for bringing a class action, notice, settlement, administration of judicial relief, appealability, binding effect of the judgment, attorneys' fees, and trying complex cases. This advanced course serves to round out a student's background in civil procedure, and demonstrates clearly in what respects and why complex litigation has presented special problems requiring special treatment. Three credit hours.
Consumer Health Benefits This course is designed to expose students to some of the legal and policy issues that confront individuals/consumers in our health care system. The course will explore the basics of our unique system of health care financing and delivery, focusing on how that system affects the consumer/employee/patient. Among the topics that are explored are employer-provided benefits; managed care; HMO liability; ERISA preemption; litigating benefit coverage denials; eligibility, funding, and benefits in the Medicaid and Medicare programs; COBRA benefits; and health care reform. There is no exam and students are evaluated on the basis of a paper and class participation. Two credit hours.
Consumer Protection Law This course will cover the fundamental causes of action and defenses in current consumer protection law. The course will examine common law antecedents of modern consumer protection law, contract and tort-based causes of action, consumer credit, compulsory disclosure statutes, consumer contract formation issues, collection and foreclosure issues, complex litigation issues of federal and state provisions, civil RICO, qui tam, class actions, and governmental enforcement. Three credit hours.
Emerging Technologies Law and the legal system anticipate and also respond to changes in technology in ways that may enhance or inhibit the development of new technologies and new applications of old technologies. This course examines these changes from a historical perspective using the telecommunications technologies and regulations as a case study. It then moves into current technological developments in genetic engineering, surrogate parenting, interactive cable TV, DNA testing, nanotechnology, facial recognition technologies, and the like. Legal issues involving intellectual property, contractual relationships, constitutional rights of individuals, rules of evidence, negligence, and products liability will be discussed in the contexts of a variety of emerging technologies. Questions revolve around the ways in which the legal system responds to changes with analogies to the "known and understood," with fear of the unknown, with conflict between legal and moral issues, with new law, and with the attorney's role in formulating change. Three credit hours.
Health Care Law One-eighth of the U.S. economy involves the delivery and regulation of health care services. This course addresses the statutory, administrative, and judicial precedents for regulating health care from the point of view of patients, health care professionals, and health care institutions. It covers topics such as informed consent, right to refuse treatment, medical malpractice, human experimentation, the regulation of new medical technologies, health care financing, and health care reimbursement. Three credit hours.
Health Law Litigation Clinic Students who intern in the Health Law Litigation Clinic work on social security/disability matters; Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement cases; child care/abuse issues and access to health care matters.
Law of Privacy Privacy may be one of the most pervasively discussed issues in this decade as a result of the increased concerns for security in travel, the openness of the Internet, the consolidation of information in massive databases both by corporations and by governments, high incidence of identity theft, and the development of more and more highly sophisticated "listening and viewing" devices. This class examines privacy as protected by statute B through a patchwork of privacy acts B and the concomitant freedom of information requirements of a democratic government, as developed through tort doctrine in the courts, and as articulated through the Constitution of the United States and those of the various states. All aspects of privacy are considered, including wiretapping, government-required personal and business information, personal, family, and reproductive autonomy, the "right to be let alone," and the right of publicity. Three credit hours.
Medical Malpractice This course will examine various topics relating to medical malpractice litigation. Among the topics to be considered are: pleadings, discovery, expert testimony, damages, statutes of limitations, res ipsa loquitur, informed consent and independent contractor issues. Two credit hours.
Products Liability A study of the source, development, and limits of the law of products liability, including theories of liability rooted in negligence, warranty, and strict liability and the liability of sellers, manufacturers, and others to users, bystanders, and other parties for "defective" products. Two credit hours.
Telecommunications Law and Policy This course addresses the legal and regulatory aspects of the telecommunications environment from the development of the telegraph and wireless communication at the beginning of the Twentieth Century to the current implementation of innovative telecommunications technologies today. It explores the latest technologies in the legal framework of modern society, but with a practical view toward the changing business landscapes and the nexus between the law and regulation of business and the policy considerations for the citizenry. That telecommunications technologies do not observe national boundaries provides opportunities to explore some of the policy issues in the international context. Three credit hours.
Chicago Legal Clinic Practicum Prof. Caroline Shoenberger (Supervisory Attorney, Chicago Legal Clinic). 2 credit hours. Students in the practicum will support the work of the newest program of the Chicago Legal Clinic, Legal Advocates for Seniors and People with Disabilities, which offers legal assistance to people whose assets and sources of income are protected by law and who have significant financial problems. Students will work on one or more of the following types of projects: creating web-based educational materials for the benefit of caseworkers, caretakers and potential clients; presenting work-shops to caseworkers, caretakers and potential clients; counseling seniors and people with disabilities who have limited sources of income and significant financial problems; researching potential cases against collection agencies that violate the Federal Fair Debt Collection Act; and assisting with the litigation of cases against collection agencies that violate the Federal Fair Debt Collection Act. A 711 license is not required. Students are expected to work an average of 8 hours a week, in addition to a weekly meeting.
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