The Oprah Interview as a Truth Commission

LESLEY WEXLER

Illinois Law professor Lesley Wexler explains how Oprah’s interview with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle might illuminate how a formal truth commission to deal with legacies of racism and colonialism might function in the British empire. Professor Wexler describes the purpose and function of state-operated truth commissions and notes the similarities and differences between those and the interview.

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Kaiser v. Cascade Capital, LLC

Docket: 19-35151

Opinion Date: March 9, 2021

Judge: Michelle T. Friedland

Areas of Law: Consumer Law

The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal, based on failure to state claim, of an action brought by plaintiff, alleging that defendant violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by sending a collection letter threatening litigation over time-barred debt and filing a lawsuit seeking to collect time-barred debt. The panel held that the FDCPA prohibits filing or threatening to file a lawsuit to collect debts that were defaulted on so long ago that a suit would be outside the applicable statute of limitations. The panel explained that the FDCPA's prohibitions regarding such "time-barred debts" apply even if it was unclear at the time a debt collector sued or threatened suit whether a lawsuit was time barred under state law. In this case, plaintiff's debt was time barred under Oregon's four-year statute of limitations for sale-of-goods contracts, and thus plaintiff stated a claim for relief under the FDCPA. However, Cascade may nonetheless be able to avoid liability through the FDCPA's affirmative defense for bona fide errors. The panel held that a mistake about the time-barred status of a debt under state law could qualify as a bona fide error within the meaning of the FDCPA. The panel left it to the district court to consider in the first instance whether a bona fide error defense, if raised on remand, could succeed in this case.