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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

Sixth Circuit: Class Members Have Right to Appeal Approval of a Class Settlement in Rule 23(b)(3) Opt-Out Cases

Posted on July 21, 2008
by Brian Wolfman Check out Fidel v. Farley, No. 06-5550 (July 18, 2008), a brand-spanking-new decision from the Sixth Circuit. Farley holds that class member-objectors to an opt-out class action settlement have the right to appeal a district court's approval...

RNC Gives Up Trademark Claims Against Political Speech

Posted on July 21, 2008
by Paul Alan Levy I am pleased to announce that, in a response to public outcry as well as the prospect of a declaratory judgment, the Republican National Committee has renounced the vast majority of the trademark claims that it...

Must Read: New York Times Series on Consumer Debt

Posted on July 20, 2008
I'd bet you are tired of hearing that this or that is a "must read." But if you are interested in American consumer debt, you really will want to read this article in today's New York Times. It's the beginning...

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Credit Card Truncation Cases and Annihilating Damages

Posted on July 19, 2008
The credit card truncation cases raise an issue of what to do about potentially annihlating damages. First, a review: in 2003, when Congress enacted FACTA, it added to the Fair Credit Reporting Act a new provision, �1681c(g), which prohibits retailers...

One Class's Field Test of the Magnuson-Moss Disclosure Rules

Posted on July 18, 2008
� 702.3(a) of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty regulations requires that sellers: of a consumer product with a written warranty shall make a text of the warranty readily available for examination by the prospective buyer by: (1) Displaying it in close proximity...

Can the RNC forbid the use of an elephant or "GOP" to identify Republicans?

Posted on July 17, 2008
by Paul Alan Levy The latest abuse of trademark law to suppress discussion of topics of substantial public interest comes from not from a company, like most of the trademark abuses previously discussed on this blog, such as here and...

Lab Experiment on Whether Payday Lending Helps Consumers Survive Financial Setbacks

Posted on July 16, 2008
Bart J. Wilson of George Mason, David W. Findlay and James W. Meehan both of Colby, Charissa P. Wellford, and Karl Schurter of Virginia have teamed up to write "An Experimental Analysis of the Demand for Payday Loans." Here's the...

Times Articles on Mortgage Regulation, Privacy, and Marketing

Posted on July 15, 2008
Here is the article in today's Times on the new Fed rules that Alan blogged about yesterday. Saturday's edition noted in "By Large Margin, Senate Votes to Help Homeowners and Overhaul Loan Agencies" that the Senate had approved the bill...

Data Breaches Increase; FTC to Survey ID Theft Victims on Use of FACTA Rights

Posted on July 14, 2008
The FTC has announced that it will survey identity theft victims about "their experiences when they contacted one or more credit reporting agencies and when they sought to use their FACT Act rights." It is seeking comments from the public...

Tiffany's Loses Trademark Claim Against eBay

Posted on July 14, 2008
by Greg Beck In a comprehensive 66-page opinion, a federal district judge today rejected Tiffany's claims that eBay infringed its trademarks by allowing the sale of counterfeit Tiffany's goods on its site. The court first held that eBay did not...

Fed Tightens Subprime Mortgage Rules

Posted on July 14, 2008
By Alan White While I haven't digested the full rule, it seems that the Fed's final unfair mortgage practices rule (press release with link to Federal Register text) is stricter than initially proposed in at least two key areas. The...

Seventh Circuit: CAFA Means What It Says About Its Appeal "Deadline"

Posted on July 14, 2008
by Brian Wolfman For a few weeks now, I've been planning to let you know about the Seventh Circuit's June 11 Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) decision in Spivey v. Vertrue, Incorporated, No. 08-8009. So, here goes: In Spivey, Judge...

Will More Banks Fail?

Posted on July 13, 2008
This post yesterday described the failure on Friday of a major U.S. bank. Will more banks fail as a result of the mortgage crisis? According to this article in today's New York Times, some banking analysts say "yes."

More on Possible Federal Government Measures to Prop Up Fannie and Freddie

Posted on July 13, 2008
This Reuters story has a bit more on government plans to rescue Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac if necessary. Here is Treasury Secretary Paulson's official statement on topic. And U.S. PIRG's Consumer Blog has this to say.

U.S. Plans Rescue of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and Backs Off - - for Now

Posted on July 12, 2008
This story in today's Washington Post describes the federal government's emergency plan for the bail out of the huge mortgage backers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and that the government backed off after signs that the institutions were stable --...

Looming Alt-A Bank Failure

Posted on July 11, 2008
By Alan White IndyMac Bancorp is a bit like Northern Rock, the UK bank that was nationalized a few months ago. Unlike many leading mortgage lenders, it is an actual bank with actual depositors, whose deposits are insured by the...

ABA IP Section Drops Effort to Attack Comparative Advertising on Search Engines

Posted on July 11, 2008
by Paul Alan Levy I am pleased to report that the Intellectual Property Section of the American Bar Association has dropped its efforts, decried a few months ago on this blog as well as here and here, to adopt resolutions...

Do Law Students Get What They Pay For? A Partial Answer (Herein of Faculty Salaries).

Posted on July 11, 2008
Recently I wondered how high law school tuition could go. That raises an issue of whether those paying tuition are getting what they pay for. One way to think about that question is to look at how law schools use...

Fed to Announce Mortgage Rule Monday

Posted on July 10, 2008
The Federal Reserve will announce its final unfair mortgage practices rule at an unusual public meeting on July 14. The proposed rule would regulate subprime mortgages by requiring reasonable income verification and prohibiting a pattern and practice of making loans...

California Foreclosure Law Passed

Posted on July 10, 2008
California has joined New York in passing legislation (full text of bill here) to address the foreclosure crisis. The thrust of the law is to require mortgage servicers to exhaust all avenues in order to contact borrowers and negotiate modified...

Fed to Issue New Mortgage Lending Regulations Next Week

Posted on July 09, 2008
During a speech yesterday, Fed Chair Ben S. Bernanke made the following statements about the long-awaited mortgage lending regulations: Next week, the Federal Reserve Board will issue new rules on mortgage lending, using its authorities under the Home Ownership and...

Obama on Bankruptcy

Posted on July 09, 2008
Yesterday, at Credit Slips, Elizabeth Warren posted this interesting piece on Obama's views on bankruptcy policy and his view that the law needs to be substantially revised. She explains why she thinks Obama has taken on the bankruptcy issue even...

NHTSA Vehicle Safety Recalls for June 2008

Posted on July 09, 2008
Go here to view the vehicle and related equipment recalls announced by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in June 2008.

Mark D. Shroder Study of RESPA

Posted on July 08, 2008
Mark D. Shroder evaluates RESPA in "The Value of the Sunshine Cure: The Efficacy of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act Disclosure Strategy," 9 Cityscape No. 1 (2007). Here's the abstract: This article examines the efficacy of the disclosure strategy...

CL&P Roundup

Posted on July 08, 2008
by Deepak Gupta Michigan Supreme Court Holds Foreclosure Unconstitutional: I've written here before about the issue of foreclosure notice procedures -- whether homeowners are getting constitutionally sufficient notice of tax or mortgage foreclosures. In March, I argued a case raising...

Elizabeth Warren on NPR's "Fresh Air" Discussing the Credit Reporting Industry

Posted on July 08, 2008
Go here to listen to Professor Elizabeth Warren on Terry Gross's "Fresh Air" last Tuesday discussing the error-prone credit reporting industry.

Consumer Product Safety Commission Recalls for June 2008

Posted on July 08, 2008
Check out the Consumer Product Safety Commission product safety recalls for June 2008.

Times Articles on Credit Card Law Reform, Online Privacy, and New York's Foreclosure Legislation

Posted on July 07, 2008
The weekend's consumer law harvest from the Times: The Times reported on Saturday that Credit Card Overhauls Seem Likely. The entire article is worth reading, but here's an excerpt: Working with the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit...

The Other Foreclosure Crisis

Posted on July 03, 2008
If you think the foreclosure crisis is about greedy home buyers stretching to buy a fancy house in California, you should read this article in the current issue of the Nation. It is one of the best accounts I have...

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