Bankruptcy

Repo Madness

By Katie Porter

A few months ago on Credit Slips Bob Lawless described a situation in which a car repo agent in California took a car with a toddler inside. Bob thought it wasn't breach of the peace, but I think Bob was wrong and he should stick to prognosticating about the bankruptcy filing rate, where he's been dead on. The National Consumer Law Center has issued a new report, Repo Madness, that describes many more harrowing incidents in repossession. The report describes how two repo agents and four auto owners have been killed in the past three years during repossessions, and includes a map showing geographically how many and where particularly troubling incidents have occurred. The report makes an interesting analogy to laws that limited landlords' rights to evict tenants, suggesting that mandating a summary process for repossession (such as replevin) may be a social and economic good. The report is a reminder of the dark side of self-help repossession, which students (and maybe their teachers) tend to find the most fun and entertaining day of Article 9 Secured Transactions classes.  

Full post as published by Credit Slips on April 06, 2010 (boomark / email).