Consumer Law

Two consumer law CLE seminars coming up

Posted on May 18, 2008
I am teaching two continuing legal education seminars on consumer law in June. My presentations tend to be engaging (I don’t have the patience for boring presentations even when I am giving them), informative, and well-attended. Register early! June 10th at 9 a...

Student loan ?crisis? just an invention?

Posted on May 14, 2008
I just had an interesting chat with Deanne Loonin, a staff attorney at the National Consumer Law Center and one of the nation’s leading experts on student lending law.  She was venting her frustration at the recent news cycle about the ?crisis? in student lending...

Mad Cow: A test the Bush Administration doesn?t like

Posted on May 12, 2008
Less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows are currently tested for Mad Cow disease under Agriculture Department guidelines, because the agency believes that more widespread testing does not guarantee food safety and could result in a false positive that scares consumers...

Monday consumer blog roundup

Posted on May 12, 2008
Here are the blog posts I starred in Google Reader last week. (If you use Google Reader, you can subscribe to my shared items.) The Alphonso Jackson Legacy. Mark Ireland comments on the Washington Post’s look at the legacy of HUD chief (and Bush appointee) Alphonso Jackson...

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Pete Barry on abusive debt collectors

Posted on May 07, 2008
My officemate, Pete Barry, was on the local Fox 9 News last night in a story about abusive debt collectors, especially one of his clients. The segment includes some of Pete’s “greatest hits” from his cases, including some pretty impressive language and threats.

The New Jersey District Court fined

Posted on May 07, 2008
The New Jersey District Court fined two individuals and one corporation $530,000 for calling consumers who registered with the national Do Not Call registry and for spoofing caller ID information. (Telemarketers are required to transmit accurate caller ID information or none at all...

Debt collectors figure out how to close the circle

Posted on May 06, 2008
Like a sort of perpetual-motion machine for debt—a perpetual-debt machine, rather—Oregon debt collection agency Genesis Financial Solutions has started issuing credit cards to consumers, with the balance equal to the debt the consumer allegedly owes...

Credit card arbitration: Banks are conspiring against you.

Posted on May 01, 2008
That the major credit card issuing banks are conspiring against consumers to force them into mandatory arbitration should come as no surprise to anybody. Why wouldn’t they force people into a system so stacked in favor of the credit card companies that the companies win all but 0...

Is the consumer movement a ?horseless headman??

Posted on April 30, 2008
Thanks to Sam for bringing Americans for Fairness in Lending (AFFIL) in to the Caveat Emptor blog. We?re really excited to be on board! As Sam mentioned, AFFIL is a campaign to raise awareness about predatory lending and create support for regulation of the lending industry...

Perpetual arbitration with National Arbitration Forum

Posted on April 30, 2008
I learned a curious fact in the course of an arbitration proceeding with the National Arbitration Forum. Once either party obtains a stay of the arbitration, the opposing party has 15 days to file an objection. After that 15 days is up, apparently only the party that requested the stay can lift it...

The Supreme Court: reality v. fiction

Posted on April 29, 2008
I don’t watch legal shows on TV, because they are so far from reality that they make me crazy, but this clip from Boston Legal, is worth watching. It is of course fictional, but as a comment on the reality of the Court it is the cold hard truth, more real than the fictions [...

Capital One charges 70% interest?

Posted on April 29, 2008
Boy I hope this is a typo. Click for the actual, redacted statement.

AFFIL?s Jim Campen and Sarah Byrnes join Caveat Emptor

Posted on April 29, 2008
I am pleased to welcome Jim Campen and Sarah Byrnes from Americans for Fairness in Lending to Caveat Emptor. Sarah will be posting weekly, and Jim will chime in from time to time, as well. AFFIL stands for the proposition that maybe the lending industry could use a little regulation, after all (hey, Judge Posner thinks [...

NYT on how Moody’s triple-A

Posted on April 28, 2008
NYT on how Moody’s triple-A security ratings led to the subprime meltdown. [crosspost: Consumerist]

How much did deregulation contribute to the recession (economic slowdown, whatever)

Posted on April 28, 2008
Deregulation refers to the point at which the U.S. government threw up its hands and said “all right banks, power companies, airlines, etc., do whatever you want!” and the deregulated industries had a big party. Eminent jurist and economic theorist Richard Posner says that might have been a mistake: “a tighter ceiling should be placed [...

How the candidates would address the foreclosure crisis

Posted on April 28, 2008
Mark Ireland, former Minnesota Assistant Attorney General, took a look at what the three remaining presidential candidates are saying about the foreclosure crisis and translated their campaign-speak into good ol’ American English. According to Ireland’s commentary, only Obama has a real plan...

Travel light: fees for extra luggage multiply like crazy

Posted on April 28, 2008
Starting May 5th, Continental, Delta, Northwest, United, and US Airways are limiting coach passengers to one checked bag per passenger. No biggie if you travel light anyway. Business and first-class passengers will get an extra bag or two, but beware of the excess luggage fees...

AT&T and others make you pay for the privilege of paying your bill

Posted on April 25, 2008
Want to pay your wireless bill in an AT&T store? That’ll be $2 extra for the “privilege” of handing it to a clerk. Want to pay your credit card bill over the phone? That will be $15. The disparate impact of policies designed to discourage consumers from paying in cash–like the AT&T’s in-store charge–falls squarely on [...

Why few seem to be able to work out better loan terms

Posted on April 25, 2008
Call it what you will, the borrower bailout/rescue/whatever <a href=”http://consumerist.com/383131/no-help-for-70-of-homeowners-facing-foreclosure”>does not seem to be working</a>. Foreclosures are still on the rise along with defaults and sad stories...

After a multimillion-dollar verdict, attorneys get fee award, too

Posted on April 24, 2008
To add (just) insult to (just) injury, a Florida judge awarded $518,301 to Angela Williams’s attorneys (PDF link). Ms. Williams recently won almost $3 million in a lawsuit against Equifax for Equifax’s refusal to fix her credit report after her identity was stolen...

LendingTree lawyers threaten blogger with defamation

Posted on April 24, 2008
Alex Stenback of Behind the Mortgage recently posted the LendingTree data breach story seen here [and here], and his posting attracted a provocative comment regarding LendingTree’s lending practices. In short, the commenter alleged that LendingTree does not let banks compete, but has its own internal lending division (Home Loan Center) that does all the “competing...

More on the HELOC freeze from SmartMoney.com

Posted on April 24, 2008
More on the HELOC freeze from SmartMoney.com (with a shout out to yours truly).

There is no state bankruptcy law.

Posted on April 24, 2008
There is no state bankruptcy law. Somebody better tell the Los Angeles Chronicle, which just did a story on the differences between Texas, Las Vegas (what?—there is certainly no city bankruptcy law), and Florida bankruptcy laws. Mislead much?

TigerDirect bought CompUSA, and

Posted on April 24, 2008
TigerDirect bought CompUSA, and just announced a grand re-opening of 15 stores and the regular opening of one store. [crosspost: Consumerist]

Growth in payday lending

Posted on April 23, 2008
This Payday America store is going into a huge space across from one of my favorite coffee shops in Minneapolis.

Inexpensive tool for detecting auto fraud

Posted on April 22, 2008
This inexpensive (~$15) paint thickness tester is a great way to help detect cars that may have been in accidents, no matter how squeaky-clean their title is. The paint thickness tester takes a reference value anywhere on the vehicle, and then tests other locations for uniformity...

You know who I’ll bet is

Posted on April 22, 2008
You know who I’ll bet is really happy about the stimulus checks coming next month? Debt collectors. Tax refund is (usually) happy season for debt collectors, and this year they get two bites at the apple.

Wait, now mortgage lenders are stealing identities?

Posted on April 22, 2008
It’s bad enough that identity thieves are now resorting to brick-and-mortar thievery, according to the Red Tape Chronicles, now mortgage lenders are stealing personal financial information, too. Apparently, some former LendingTree employees helped some unnamed mortgage lenders to hack into the LendingTree system and steal information for LendingTree customers from 2006 to early 2008...

Last week, Ben Popken at Consumerist

Posted on April 22, 2008
Last week, Ben Popken at Consumerist suggested that the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999 by a Republican Congress was a gift to Wall Street that encouraged banks to issue the sketchy mortgages that, failing spectacularly across the country, have dragged the economy into the toilet.

700,000 Central Collection Bureau, Inc., accounts vulnerable to identity theft

Posted on April 22, 2008
On March 21st, thieves removed eight computers and a server from Central Collection Bureau’s headquarters in Indianapolis. On the server was personal information, including names, addresses, and social security numbers of as many as 700,000 consumers that CCB was collecting from...

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