The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered an opus today on whether a mutual fund investment advisor could be primarily liable under the federal securities laws for allegedly misleading statements in prospectuses issued by the mutual funds.

The case, First Derivative Traders v. Janus Capital Group, involves alleged misrepresentations by the Janus family of

The Fourth Circuit today settled a nationwide debate, in this Circuit anyway, about an important issue involving automobile loans in Chapter 13 proceedings.  That’s whether a lender can have a purchase money security interest for the portion of its financing which includes "negative equity" or other items associated with the loan, like "gap insurance." 

The

I’ve been writing this blog for a year now. Thanks to all of you have been reading it, and thanks especially for the nice comments I’ve gotten from many of you.

Today is also another birthday in our house, the eighteenth birthday of my daughter Maddie.  We’ll have cake for Maddie later, but not the

The Fourth Circuit held today that the manner in which manufacturers of pest control products sold their products to consumers did not constitute illegal resale price maintenance.  The decision in Valupest.com of Charlotte, Inc. v. Bayer Corprejected Plaintiffs’ argument that an antitrust stalwart, United States v. General Electric Co., 272 U.S. 476 (1926)