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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

Consumer Representation Needed on ABA Subcommittee on Cyberspace Law

Posted on November 20, 2008
James P. Nehf of Indiana--Indianapolis is looking for one or two people who might be interested in working as consumer representatives on the American Bar Association subcommittee on Cyberspace Law (Section on Business Law). He explains: The purpose is to...

Good news: Greed is not a First Amendment right

Posted on November 20, 2008
Earlier this week, on November 18, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit issued an excellent opinion confirming that the First Amendment?s guarantee of free speech?even its bastard stepchild commercial speech?did not allow ?data miners? to sell data...

Comptroller of Currency Responds to Claims that CRA Contributed to the Subprime Lending Crisis

Posted on November 19, 2008
In a speech before the Enterprise Annual Network Conference today, Comptroller of the Currency John C. Dugan rejected claims that the Community Reinvestment Act was responsible for the subprime lending crisis: * * * While not perfect, CRA has made...

Courts Mediate Foreclosures

Posted on November 19, 2008
Local courts around the country are implementing mediation programs in order to reduce foreclosure sales and encourage negotiated workouts. The Philadelphia program (photos here) is one of the most ambitious, enlisting the aid of hundreds of counselors and volunteer lawyers...

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Latest Development in Jones Day Trademark Abuse Case

Posted on November 19, 2008
by Paul Alan Levy A few weeks ago, I commented on the efforts of mega law firm Jones Day to abuse trademark law to suppress articles it didn?t like on a real estate transactions web site, BlockShopper.com. Jones Day claims...

Michael S. Barr et al. on Behaviorally Informed Home Mortgage Regulation

Posted on November 18, 2008
Michael S. Barr of Michigan, Sendhil Mullainathan of Harvard's Economics Department and the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and Eldar Shafir of Princeton have co-authored "Behaviorally Informed Home Mortgage Regulation." Here's the abstract:Choosing a mortgage is one of the...

Foreclosure and Modification Data

Posted on November 18, 2008
By Alan White We now have foreclosure and mortgage modification reports coming from five sources on a periodic basis: the Mortgage Bankers Association National Delinquency Survey (watch for the 3rd quarter report due the first week of December), the FHFA...

State of Texas Objects to Ameritrade Settlement

Posted on November 18, 2008
by Brian Wolfman A little while back, Public Citizen Litigation Group objected to the proposed settlement in In re Ameritrade Accountholder Litig., No. 3-07-cv-02852-VRW (N.D. Cal.), on behalf of the named plaintiff who instigated the litigation. The case concerns alleged...

Bail out Detroit? Not without some conditions.

Posted on November 17, 2008
While I did not like the idea of bailing out Wall Street, I really do not like the idea of bailing out Detroit. Yes, the auto industry is a cornerstone of the American economy. Yes, the collapse of GM, Ford,...

Paying (but not overpaying) the Servicers

Posted on November 17, 2008
By Alan White Why are foreclosures continuing, when each foreclosure results in an average loss of $100,000 and frustrated homeowners and counselors are trying to get reasonable loan workouts? One of the many answers to this complex question is how...

Tire Pressure Monitors Save Lives

Posted on November 17, 2008
A post today on this blog expressing grave reservations over the proposed bail out of the auto industry referenced the importance of tire pressure monitors in saving fuel. Tire pressure monitors also save lives. And, importantly, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety...

Credit Cards -- Less Purchasing Power

Posted on November 16, 2008
In response to current market conditions, the credit card companies are greatly reducing credit limits and increasing fees. Check out this comprehensive article in today's Washington Post.

Lobbyists Descend on the Treasury Department Seeking a Piece of the Bailout

Posted on November 12, 2008
Yo! Read this front page article in today's New York Times entitled "Lobbyists Swarm the Treasury for a Helping of the Bailout Pie." A few tidbits: (1) The article suggests that much of the bailout's first installment ($350 billion) may...

Arkansas Supreme Court Strikes Down Payday Loan Law

Posted on November 12, 2008
The Arkansas Supreme Court last week struck down the state's Check-Cashers Act, which authorizes and regulates payday lending in the state, as a violation of the state's constitutional ban on usury. The state's constitution prohibits any loan with an interest...

Obama and Antitrust Policy

Posted on November 11, 2008
Check out this interesting article in today's New York Times concerning antitrust policy. In it, lawyer David Boies explains why, in light of the economic crisis, Obama may not follow his ordinary policy preference for tough antitrust enforcement.

New York Appellate Division Says Class Action Incentive Awards Are Not Permitted

Posted on November 11, 2008
By Brian Wolfman Here's a surprising class action developement: In Flemming v. Barnwell Nursing Home and Health Facilities, Inc., No. 504328 (Oct. 16, 2008), one of New York's intermediate appellate courts has held that New York law prohibits incentive awards...

The Case for Homeowner Debt Relief

Posted on November 11, 2008
Today's New York Times reports that nearly a quarter of Americans with mortgages owe more than their home's current value. One example cited in the story is a homeowner with a $630,000 mortgage from 2005 on a home now worth...

Today's Fannie/Freddie Relief Plan

Posted on November 11, 2008
By Alan WhiteThe plan to modify loans controlled by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced today, while a step forward, suffers from two major drawbacks. First, Fannie and Freddie do not hold most of the delinquent subprime and alt-A mortgages,...

The AALS Annual Conference and Consumer Law

Posted on November 10, 2008
Last year's AALS Conference had a lot for people interested in consumer law, including an interesting talk by CL&P blogger Richard Alderman on arbitration and presentations by others whose scholarship is regularly mentioned on this blog. Because this year has...

Negative Prepayments

Posted on November 10, 2008
By Alan White That's what mortgage servicers call it when a loan is modified by adding fees and interest to the principal. Based on reports to investors, I estimate that in September and October $288 million was added to homeowner...

Ray Brescia on the Social Capital Response to the Subprime Mortgage Crisis

Posted on November 08, 2008
Ray Brescia of Albany has written "Capital in Chaos: The Subprime Mortgage Crisis and the Social Capital Response," 56 Cleveland St. L. Rev. 271 (2008). Here's the abstract:This article explores the extent to which social capital theory can respond to...

October 2008 NHTSA and CPSC Recalls

Posted on November 07, 2008
October 2008 vehicle recalls from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are here, and October 2008 product safety recalls from the Consumer Product Safety Commission are here.

The Foreclosure Agenda

Posted on November 06, 2008
By Alan White The outgoing administration has failed utterly to get a handle on the foreclosure crisis. Distress sales continue to rise every month, mortgage servicers continue to impose losses of 50% or more on investors (meaning, at this point,...

Payday Lending Intitiatives Rejected

Posted on November 05, 2008
The Center for Responsible Lending is reporting that voters rejected ballot initiatives in Arizona and Ohio that would have enabled or extended the legality of payday lending.

Foreclosure Needs Scores

Posted on November 05, 2008
Want to know what the foreclosure "needs scores" are for every community in the United States? The Local Initiatives Support Corporation has developed such scores sorted by ZIP Code. According to Housing Policy.org, where you can find a link to...

More Times Reports on Foreclosure Issues, Student Loans, and Target Marketing

Posted on November 04, 2008
More reports from the Times: yesterday's issue included "Another Student Loan Company Settles With New York," about the settlement struck by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo with Goal Financial; Goal will become the ninth lender to adopt a marketing code...

Michael Barr, Jane Dokko, and Benjamin Keys on the Effect of Race on the Likelihood of Troublesome Subprime Loan Terms

Posted on November 03, 2008
Michael S. Barr of Michigan, Jane Dokko of the Fed, and Benjamin J. Keys of Michigan's Economics Department have co-authored "Who Gets Lost in the Subprime Mortgage Fallout? Homeowners in Low- and Moderate-Income Neighborhoods." Here's the abstract:With the subprime mortgage...

FTC Cracks Down on Debt Settlement Firms

Posted on November 03, 2008
As previously discussed here, so-called "debt negotiation" companies are engaged in questionable practices in the name of helping consumers. David Giacalone's f/k/a blog notes that the FTC recently settled claims against several debt negotiation firms that the FTC says had...

Times Reports on Lending Issues and Do-Not-Mail Lists

Posted on November 02, 2008
I've fallen embarrassingly far behind in my reading of the Times, but here are some of the articles I have managed to get to: Today's edition includes an extraordinary column by Gretchen Morgenson, "Was There a Loan It Didn't Like?"...

Behaviorism and Mortgage Workouts

Posted on November 02, 2008
By Alan White Some useful applications of behavioral economics have emerged from efforts to deleverage American homeowners through mortgage renegotiations. Servicers have complained that they have great difficulty persuading borrowers to respond when they offer help and solicit information, like...

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