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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 Recent Entries: 1438
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Times Reports on Prospects for the Housing Bailout Bill, Jingle Mail, and Cell Phone Spam
Posted on May 11, 2008Yesterday's Times had several articles on consumer law. First, "Housing Bailout Bill Seems on Shaky Ground" reports on the prospects for the bill the House passed on Thursday. An excerpt: The Bush administration on Friday said it would only support...
Ninth Circuit Allows Claims of Deceptive Food Marketing to Go Forward
Posted on May 08, 2008by Brian Wolfman In Williams v. Gerber Products Company, No. 06-55921 (Apr. 21, 2008), the plaintiff class pleaded common-law misrepresentation and breach of warranty claims, as well as claims under California?s Unfair Competition Law, Cal. Bus. & Prof...
Did Lenders Anticipate a Bailout if Loans Soured?
Posted on May 07, 2008Before policymakers undertake more bailouts arising out the subprime mortgage crisis, policymakers should ask the classic question: what did subprime lenders know and when did they know it? While much remains unclear about the crisis, considerable evidence suggests that at...
NPR: Countrywide Loan Officer Coaching Loan Applicants to Lie
Posted on May 06, 2008by Christopher Peterson National Public Radio ran a story this morning reporting on a Washington, D.C. family's experiences applying for a loan with Countrywide. The customer says that Countrywide's loan officer aggressively coached her to lie about her and her...
Product Safety Recalls for April 2008
Posted on May 03, 2008Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls for April 2008 are here. As usual, the monthly recall report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is delayed. We'll post NHTSA's April 2008 report when it becomes available.
Federal Reserve Proposing New Protections for Credit Card Consumers
Posted on May 02, 2008The top story in the Washington Post this morning is this story entitled "Fed to Pursue Aggressive Checks on Credit Cards." The Federal Reserve, along with the Office of Thrift Supervision and the National Credit Union Administration, will issue proposed...
Times Articles on Mortgage Plans
Posted on May 02, 2008Today's Times reports, in "House Panel Approves Bill to Assist Borrowers," that the House Financial Services Committee, "pushed forward on Thursday with an aggressive effort to help troubled homeowners, approving legislation that would make up to $300 billion in federally...
Much More on Proposed Federal Reserve Credit Card Rules
Posted on May 02, 2008Earlier today, we blogged about a new Federal Reserve proposal to protect credit card users from predatory bank practices. You can go to the Federal Reserve's webpage on the proposal to find a ton of information, including the agency's press...
Rent-a-Center reconsiders hunger aid
Posted on May 01, 2008Rent-a-Center, the publicly-traded rent to own chain, is having some second thoughts about its charitable donations to an Ohio food bank. Second Harvest signed on to the Ohio Coalition for Responsible Lending, which favors stricter regulation of credit, including payday...
Call for Papers on the Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Posted on April 30, 2008We've received a call for papers on the subprime mortgage meltdown: The Albany Government Law Review is planning an issue dedicated to the pressing topic of the Subprime Mortgage Crisis. The issue will offer a varied look into the subprime...
New Consumer Law Symposium from Competition Policy International
Posted on April 30, 2008by Chris Peterson Competition Policy International, a peer reviewed antitrust journal, has just come out with a new symposium on consumer protection. Among other highlights, you might check out Emory Law Professor Paul Rubin's argument that government should ignore advertising...
Fast-Food Calorie Law Goes Into Effect in New York City
Posted on April 30, 2008by Deepak Gupta Did you know that a smoked turkey sandwich (930 calories) at Chili's has more calories than a sirloin steak (540 calories)? Or that a large milk shake from Mc Donald's has over 1,000 calories, about half a...
Third Circuit Ruling On Permissive Class Certification Appeals Under Rule 23(f)
Posted on April 28, 2008by Brian Wolfman Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f) says a court of appeals may permit an appeal from a district court order granting or denying class certification if a petition for permission to appeal is filed with the court...
Elizabeth Warren's Financial Services Product Safety Commission Proposal
Posted on April 27, 2008Last month Deepak mentioned Elizabeth Warren's proposal for a financial services product safety commission. You can find her Harvard Magazine article, Making Credit Safer: The Case for Regulation here. The entire article is worth reading, but here are some excerpts:...
Second Circuit: Plaintiffs Have Standing To Pursue Antitrust Case Alleging Collusion By Major Credit Card Companies To Require Arbitation And Ban Consumer Class Actions
Posted on April 25, 2008by Brian Wolfman The Second Circuit today issued Ross v. Bank of America, No. 06-04755 (Apr. 25 2008). In this case, the plaintiff credit card holders claimed that the defendant banks conspired in violation of section 1 of the Sherman...
Call for Papers - International Association of Consumer Law (IACL) International Conference, Hyderabad 25-27 February 2009
Posted on April 25, 2008The 12th International Conference on Consumer Law, organised under the auspices of the International Association of Consumer Law (www.iaclaw.org) will be organised by the NALSAR University of Law (www.nalsarlawuniv.ac.in) in Hyderabad, India on February 25-27, 2009...
The "Snowballing Futility" of Arbitration for Employees
Posted on April 25, 2008Here's some more recent news on arbitration. A study by Professor Michael LeRoy of the University of Illinois shows that, while employers are frequently successful in getting arbitration awards overturned in state court, employees are not. LeRoy examines a "snowballing...
WSJ on Arbitration Bias
Posted on April 25, 2008Last month, San Francisco sued the National Arbitration Forum, accusing the arbitrator of unfairly favoring credit card companies in disputes with their customers. Nathan Koppel of the Wall Street Journal this week delved deeper into the allegations of bias (the...
6.5 million
Posted on April 24, 2008That's the new number for total projected foreclosures in the U.S. through 2012, according to a Credit Suisse report released Tuesday. In other words, one of every eight mortgages will be foreclosed. Not one of eight subprime mortgages, one of...
Consumer Law Conference is just one month away
Posted on April 23, 2008Next month, the Center for Consumer Law at the University of Houston Law Center will present the only conference dedicated to the teaching of consumer law. If you are currently teaching or want to teach consumer law, at the College...
Fed Meeting on Mortgage Mega-Merger
Posted on April 22, 2008By Alan White A long list of community development and housing activists gathered at the Chicago Fed?s meeting room this morning to testify about the impact of Countrywide Mortgage Company on their communities. After Bank of America?s customary recitation of...
Minnesotans rally for foreclosure moratorium
Posted on April 21, 2008By Alan White Homeowners and activists demonstrated at the Minnesota governor's mansion Saturday to support a statewide 12-month foreclosure moratorium. Governor Pawlenty has threatened to veto the Minnesota Subprime Foreclosure Deferment Act, now pending in the state legislature...
Australian Law School Seeks Consumer Law Professor
Posted on April 21, 2008Here's the announcement: The Griffith Law School is seeking to appoint a leading scholar for a joint position of Professor in the Law School and Director of the Centre for Credit and Consumer Law (CCCL). The Griffith Law School (GLS)...
New HUD Secretary?
Posted on April 18, 2008By Alan White President Bush has announced his nominee to replace Alfonso Jackson as Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The nominee's qualifications to run HUD and set the nation's housing policy, including vital issues of FHA...
New Consumer Caucus; Credit Card Hearing
Posted on April 18, 2008Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) launched a new Consumer Justice Caucus on Wednesday. [Weak economy may add appeal to fledgling consumer caucus, The Hill] Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) has an interesting blog post at Talkingpointsmemo...
Response to the Boston Globe on the Student Loan ?Crisis?
Posted on April 18, 2008by Deanne Loonin (Director of the Student Loan Borrower Assistance Project) There are many changes going on in the credit world generally and in the student loan industry more specifically, but the April 17 front page article in The Boston...
Journal of Family and Economic Issues
Posted on April 18, 2008The following papers appear in 29 Journal of Family and Economic Issues Number 2 (June 2008), a thematic issue on consumer financial issues: Lucia Dunn, Guest Editor's Introduction Sumit Agarwal, Souphala Chomsisengphet, and Lawrence Mielnicki, Do Forbearance Plans Help Mitigate...
Your Identity Is Worth $2
Posted on April 17, 2008Apparently there's so much private data on the black market that it's no longer worth much to data thieves. [source: Techdirt]
Hearing on Credit Card Consumer Protections
Posted on April 16, 2008The Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit Subcommittee (Chairman Maloney, D-N.Y.) of the House Financial Services Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing tomorrow titled "The Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights: Providing New Protections for Consumers...
Marsha Courchane Paper on Explaining the Pricing of Home Mortgage Loans to Minority Borrowers
Posted on April 15, 2008Marsha Courchane's paper The Pricing of Home Mortgage Loans to Minority Borrowers: How Much of the APR Differential Can We Explain? can be found in 29 Journal of Real Estate Research No. 4 (2007). Here's the abstract: The public releases...
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Is it libel to write blog posts and/or online reviews about a local business that defames one's reputation?
Libel is the form of defamation expressed in fixed-- usually written form. Sland...
How can I make my blog more popular?
You have to write and submit articles, with backlinks to your blogsite....

Is it libel to write blog posts and/or online reviews about a local business that defames one's reputation?
Libel is the form of defamation expressed in fixed-- usually written form. Sland...
How can I make my blog more popular?
You have to write and submit articles, with backlinks to your blogsite....








