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Consumer Law

CL&P Blog

The contributors to this blog are a diverse group of lawyers and law professors who practice, teach, or write about consumer law and policy. Although the blog is hosted by Public Citizen's Consumer Justice Project, the views expressed here are solely those of the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of the institutions with which they are affiliated.

Post Frequency: 15.1/day

Last Entry: April 01, 2011 at 11:13:04

Behavioral Law and Economics, Lenders, and the Subprime Mortgage Meltdown

Posted on September 14, 2008
Behavioral law and economics maintains that people are subject to certain biases that impair their decision-making. Many consumer law scholars, including me, argue that policy-makers should take these biases into account in formulating consumer protection rules...

New York Times: Congress Should Enact Credit Cardholders "Bill of Rights"

Posted on September 14, 2008
Today's New York Times editorializes here in favor of the Credit Cardholders "Bill of Rights" pending before Congress. The legislation takes aim at retroactive rate increases, double cycle billing that allows assessment of interest on amounts already paid, multiple over-limit...

The Failure to Regulate Fannie and Freddie

Posted on September 14, 2008
This major story in today's Washington Post takes the position that the failure of congressional leaders and the Clinton Administration to curb the uncontrolled growth of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- and to withstand the enormous lobbying pressure from...

CPSC and NHTSA Recalls for August 2008

Posted on September 14, 2008
The Consumer Product Safety Commission's product safety recalls for August 2008 can be found here, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's vehicle and related recalls for the same month can be found here.

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Eighth Circuit Finds Class Action Aribtration Ban Not Unconscionable

Posted on September 14, 2008
by Brian Wolfman In Pleasants v. American Express, No. 07-3235 (Sept. 8, 2008), the Eighth Circuit has upheld an adhesion contract requiring pre-dispute mandatory arbitration and banning class actions in arbitration. The case involved a dispute over pre-loaded store cards...

Supreme Court of Virginia Strikes Down Anti-Spam Law on First Amendment Grounds

Posted on September 13, 2008
Yesterday, in Jaynes v. Commonwealth, No. 06-2388 (Sept. 12, 2008), the Supreme Court of Virginia struck down a state statute that criminalized the sending of unsolicited bulk email to consumers. The defendant in question had been sentenced to 9 years...

Trademark Abuse by Jones Day to Suppress Free Speech

Posted on September 12, 2008
by Paul Alan Levy A new entry in the contest for ?grossest abuse of trademark law to suppress speech the plaintiff doesn?t like? comes from Chicago, where the giant law firm Jones Day has sued BlockShopper.com, a web site that...

CPSC Establishes Web Page on Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

Posted on September 10, 2008
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has established a new web page devoted to informing the public about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act recently passed by Congress and signed by President Bush. See our earlier post for a synopsis of...

DOJ Disgraces Itself in Support of Nursing Homes

Posted on September 10, 2008
The United States Justice Department has completely disgraced itself. On July 30, 2008, Keith Nelson, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the United States, wrote a letter to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in which he attacked S. 2838, a...

The Problem with the GSE Nationalization

Posted on September 08, 2008
By Alan White Once again the Treasury Department has stepped in to protect investors in mortgage-backed securities (this time those of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) but has not addressed the underlying problem. Now that the US taxpayer will become...

Read the Complete Details on the Freddie/Fannie Takeover

Posted on September 08, 2008
Today's Washington Post has a terrific set of stories on the Freddie/Fannie takeover. Start with this lead story and then click on "view all items in this story" for a drop down menu with about 10 other stories. Read about...

Times Reports on Responses to the Subprime Crisis, Student Loan Issues, Unauthorized Bank Account Transfers, and More

Posted on September 07, 2008
Bob Tedeschi's Mortgages column in today's Times, "Shying Away From N.Y. Loans," reports on a consequence of the new New York subprime law: making it even harder for subprime borrowers to obtain loans. An excerpt:Among other things, borrowers with high-cost...

The Government Takes Over Fannie and Freddie

Posted on September 07, 2008
The takeover is happening.

FDA To Provide Public Listing of Drugs Under Investigation

Posted on September 06, 2008
In a major prescription drug safety development, the FDA has decided to post every three months a list of drugs whose safety is under investigation by the agency. This Washington Post story provides details.

The Bail Out of Freddie and Fannie

Posted on September 06, 2008
Following up on yesterday's Post, here's a detailed Washington Post article on the planned federal government bail out of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. The plan includes dismissal of the companies' top executives and their board members. Shareholders will be...

Foreclosure Crisis - Bad and Getting Worse

Posted on September 06, 2008
By Alan White Foreclosures in the United States have reached their highest level since the Great Depression. One of every eleven mortgages is now in default or foreclosure. That's more than five million American homes in trouble. Just in April,...

Government to Seize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?

Posted on September 05, 2008
The New York Times just reported that senior officials from the Bush Administration and the Fed say the government is preparing a plan to seize Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and place them in a conservatorship.

Reverse Redlining Predatory Lending Complaint

Posted on September 05, 2008
The Associated Press, via Law.com, reports here that a Texan has brought a reverse redlining predatory lending suit suit. According to the article, the plaintiff charges that she was "victimized by a loan with onerous terms because of her skin...

Ninth Circuit Severs Non-Preempted Portion of CA Financial Information Privacy Act

Posted on September 05, 2008
by Leah Nicholls Yesterday, a divided Ninth Circuit panel held that the preempted portions of California's Financial Information Act were severable from those that were not preempted by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The California law sought to...

Butler and Johnston Provide Economic Analysis of UDAP Statutes

Posted on September 04, 2008
Henry N. Butler of Northwestern and Jason Scott Johnston of Penn have written "Consumer Harm Acts? An Economic Analysis of State Consumer Protection Acts." Here's the abstract:State Consumer Protection Acts (CPAs) were adopted in the 1960s and 1970s to protect...

Links to Some Articles in the Journal of Consumer Affairs

Posted on September 04, 2008
Last Saturday, I posted here the table of contents for the Fall 2008 Journal of Consumer Affairs. Some of the pieces are available for free on the web; here are the links: Pet Peeves: Trademark Law and the Consumer Enjoyment...

Rebecca Tushnet on Commercial Speech Regulation and the First Amendment

Posted on September 01, 2008
Rebecca Tushnet of Georgetown has written "It Depends on What the Meaning of 'False' is: Falsity and Misleadingness in Commercial Speech Doctrine," 41 Loyola L.A. L. Rev. Here's the abstract:While scholarship regarding the Supreme Court's noncommercial speech doctrine has often...

Table of Contents for Fall 2008 Journal of Consumer Affairs

Posted on August 30, 2008
Here is the table of contents for the Fall 2008 issue of the Journal of Consumer Affairs (Volume 42, Number 3). It includes an article by Elizabeth Warren, as well as pieces on predatory lending, consumer privacy, food labeling and...

Business Week Article on Fed's Credit Card Proposals

Posted on August 29, 2008
Business Week has an article, "Credit Card Rage," about consumer dissatisfaction with credit card interest rate practices and the Fed's proposed rules to rein in some of those practices, including increasing the interest rate on previously-incurred charges...

New Third Circuit Arbitration Decision Worth Reading

Posted on August 29, 2008
by Brian Wolfman A construction company hires a new employee, Mr. Morales, who speaks only Spanish. Morales attends a company orientation session conducted only in English. The company employee who runs the orientation asks another, reasonably bilingual employee to explain...

Brian McCall on Usury Law

Posted on August 28, 2008
Brian McCall of Oklahoma has written "Unprofitable Lending: Modern Credit Regulation and the Lost Theory of Usury." Here's the abstract:With almost daily news stories about the crisis in our credit markets, it seems inevitable that a new political and academic...

New Study on Mortgage Modifications

Posted on August 27, 2008
By Alan White I have just posted a paper on SSRN reporting on loan-level mortgage modification data from subprime mortgage servicer monthly reports. The gist is that voluntary mortgage modifications are not reducing principal debt, and are in fact increasing...

2008 Supplement to Consumer Law Casebook Available

Posted on August 26, 2008
I am pleased to announce that the 2008 supplement to our casebook is now finished. I expect Thomson/West will shortly make it available to those using the book but if you are using the book and need it right away,...

Wyoming's 8th Annual Consumer Issues Conference

Posted on August 26, 2008
The University of Wyoming's 8th Consumer Issues Conference, to be held Thursday, September 25 from 8:45 to 4:30 at the University of Wyoming Union in Laramie, will focus on energy and telecommunications. There will be 20 speakers on energy and...

Obama co-sponsors bill on soldiers and mandatory arbitration

Posted on August 26, 2008
by Deepak Gupta Although the issue hasn't come up in the presidential campaign, those looking for clues about the presidential candidates' views on the ongoing debate over binding mandatory arbitration will want take note of a new piece of proposed...

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