January is Consumer Law Resources Month at the Harris County Law Library. Consumer law focuses on protecting individuals in everyday transactions—when buying goods or services, dealing with debt collectors, credit reporting issues, or resolving landlord-tenant disputes. In Texas, many of these protections come from laws like the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices–Consumer Protection Act (DTPA), which prohibits false, misleading, or deceptive business practices. At the federal level, agencies such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and nonprofit advocacy organizations—including the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC)—play a key role in enforcing consumer protections, developing policy, and providing educational resources for consumers and advocates alike.
Read moreCOVID-19 Crisis Resources from the National Consumer Law Center Digital Library
Graphic from the NCLC Digital Library home page.
COVID-19 has become a global public health crisis, causing countless individuals around the world to experience personal medical crises. Yet for many, these problems are compounded by, or even outweighed by, financial crisis resulting from the pandemic.
In recognition of this, the National Consumer Law Center is offering free and discounted resources available to all, online, through its excellent Digital Library.
Additionally, NCLC’s Digital Library also now features an expanding, up-to-date list of new US consumer protections being rolled out in response to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation.
These resources are invaluable for any lay person facing financial difficulties as a result of the crisis, as well as attorneys looking to keep abreast of the swiftly changing landscape in these uncertain times.
Legislative Histories of Cybersecurity Laws Enacted by the 113th and 114th Congresses
January is Data Privacy and Information Security Law Month at the Harris County Law Library. All month long, we are promoting the data privacy resources in our collection to raise awareness of the need for data security in the practice of law. We are also featuring relevant electronic sources, including the Cybersecurity Law Institute at Georgetown University, and the Cybersecurity Law Report, both of which are freely available on the Internet.
The Law Library's subscription databases provide access to even more good resources, including legislative histories of key cybersecurity laws. HeinOnline has just added several new cybersecurity law resources to its U.S. Federal Legislative History Library. The new collection, Legislative Histories of Cybersecurity Laws Enacted by the 113th and 114th Congresses (William H. Manz, ed.) (2016) is a compilation of eight laws enacted in 2014 and 2015 including:
- Cybersecurity Workforce Assessment Act
- Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014
- National Cybersecurity Protection Act of 2014
- Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014
Four additional Acts grouped into the Cybersecurity Act of 2015 are also part of the compilation. The legislative histories include the text and chronology of the Acts, bill versions, related bills, committee reports, congressional debates and hearings, GAO reports, and presidential materials.
To access these legislative histories and a world of other content, visit the Law Library or access HeinOnline on your mobile device.