Legal Commentary

Bank Sleaze

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

The Agonist, The Checking Account Scam - How Wells Fargo Gouged Its Customers.

Among the many interesting things in the article is this nugget:

It is also interesting that Judge Alsup is willing to fault the bank process of sending customers reams of tiny-print legal documents that nobody reads or can understand. No doubt the bank lawyers thought this document was a foolproof way to protect the bank in any lawsuit – “see, it says right here….!”. Judge Alsup was not fooled, particularly as the Wells Fargo executives involved testified that the bank did not expect customers to read or understand this document.

I have not read the decision, but it seems from the article to rely on the obligations of good faith and fair dealing in the California Business and Professions Code, and thus may not easily be generalizable nationally.

Full post as published by Discourse.net on August 13, 2010 (boomark / email).