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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

President Signs FACTA Truncation Bill

Posted on June 10, 2008
Recently we reported here that Congress had passed a bill that would block credit card slip truncation suits--that is, the many suits that have been filed for violation of the FCRA provision, § 1681c(g), added by FACTA, barring retailers from...

Supreme Court Patent Decision Should Give Some Comfort to Consumers

Posted on June 10, 2008
by Greg Beck Cross-posted from Citizen Vox The Supreme Court yesterday issued an important decision involving patents that, although technical in nature, may end up becoming an important victory for consumers. In recent years, companies have increasingly attempted to use...

Should Arbitrators Have to be Licensed?

Posted on June 09, 2008
Jeffrey W. Stempel argues that sometimes they should be in "Keeping Arbitrations from Becoming Kangaroo Courts," 8 Nevada L. Rev. 251 (2007). Here's the abstract: Arbitration has grown rapidly during the past 20 years. Particularly notable and problematic is the...

Chicago Court System a "Frenetic Debt Collections Machine"

Posted on June 09, 2008
The Chicago Tribune has this interesting article on the state of debt collections in Chicago, noting that Cook County courts are clogged with more than 119,000 civil lawsuits against alleged debtors. Many of these cases involve mistaken identities or debts...

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AP Poll on Relationship Between Crushing Debt, Stress, and Poor Health

Posted on June 09, 2008
This blog has covered issues relating to consumer debt intensely. But we have often ignored the personal toll unmanageable debt imposes on people's lives. This long story in today's Washington Post discusses an AP-AOL poll of consumers regarding the relationship...

Home Equity Loans Squeezed

Posted on June 08, 2008
Not surprisingly in light of recent events, obtaining loans and maintaining lines of credit against one's home equity are getting more difficult. This New York Times article explains.

2.5% of Home Mortgages in Forecslosure; More than 6% delinquent

Posted on June 07, 2008
Check out this post from Credit Slips discussing a survey done by the Mortgage Bankers Association showing that 2.47% of home mortgages are in bankruptcy and 6.35% are delinquent.

More on the National Arbitration Forum

Posted on June 07, 2008
We have blogged frequently about binding pre-dispute arbitration in consumer contracts, including here, here, and here about the alleged bias of the National Arbitration Forum, one of the major private arbitration companies. Now, Business Week has weighed in with this...

It's Bad Out There

Posted on June 06, 2008
Highlights of the First Quarter National Delinquency Survey By Alan White For the third quarter in a row, foreclosures and mortgage defaults are rocketing upwards, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association report on foreclosures and delinquent mortgages as of March...

Business Week: "Banks vs. Consumers"

Posted on June 06, 2008
Spoiler alert: the banks win.

An Interesting Take on the Subprime Crisis

Posted on June 06, 2008
A stick figure explanation for the subprime crisis. (HT to Brian Leiter).

The Hazards of Suing a Consumer Review Website

Posted on June 06, 2008
by Paul Alan Levy After Lifestyle Lift sued Justin Leonard for allowing putting its name in the ?path? for pages on his infomercialscams.com web site where consumers commented on the merits of Lifestyle?s product, claiming trademark infringement and dilution, Leonard...

New York City Consumer Debt Working Conference

Posted on June 05, 2008
The Feerick Center for Social Justice and the New York County Lawyers Association Justice Center are sponsoring a free conference on Consumer Debt in New York City on Thursday, June 19, 2008 from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM at the...

The Content of Consumer Law Classes

Posted on June 05, 2008
Want to know what is taught in consumer protection classes? I've now posted to SSRN "The Content of Consumer Law Classes," which will appear in 12 Journal of Consumer and Commercial Law, No. 1. The piece reports on the survey...

Los Angeles to Sue Time Warner Cable for Poor Service

Posted on June 05, 2008
The Los Angeles City Attorney is suing Time-Warner Cable today for making false and misleading statements to subscribers and violating the terms of its franchise agreement with the city. The complaint alleges that, despite promises to "fix . . ....

Fed staff reads behavioral economics literature

Posted on June 04, 2008
For you law (or economics) professors out there writing about behavioral economics, take heart. Sometimes people who write regulations are listening (and reading.) The new credit card unfair practices rule proposed jointly by the Federal Reserve, OTS, and NCUA makes...

Jean Sternlight on Governmental Imposition of Arbitration on Companies in Consumer Disputes

Posted on June 04, 2008
Jean R. Sternlight of UNLV, a frequent critic of binding arbitration clauses, discusses whether it would be acceptable and constitutional for the government to impose arbitration on companies in consumer disputes in "In Defense of Mandatory Arbitration (If Imposed on...

Technical Difficulties

Posted on June 04, 2008
We appear to be experiencing a problem due to Typepad's recent software upgrade, leading to the disappearance of our sidebars and headlines. We are currently working to resolve the issue and apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for your patience...

The Dangers of "Standard" Terms

Posted on June 04, 2008
An interesting post by David Giacalone explains how used car dealers use "standard" sales contracts to avoid competition on the terms of their warranties. The use of standard terms is one reason why some things, like lawyer contingency fees, seem...

CSPI Seeks FDA Ban on 8 Food Dyes

Posted on June 04, 2008
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to ban eight food dyes that the group claims cause behavioral problems in some children and serve to enhance the appeal of unhealthy foods....

Minnesota Foreclosure Freeze Vetoed

Posted on June 03, 2008
Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed a bill that would have delayed residential foreclosures on subprime and negative amortization loans. The bill would have allowed owner-occupants to delay foreclosure by up to one year, by paying at least 65% of their...

Tokyo Drift

Posted on June 02, 2008
By Alan White From 1992 to 1998, Japan?s economy drifted in what became known as the Heisei depression, as banks and regulators stubbornly refused to recognize losses on overvalued loan and real estate assets. The prolonged crisis in Japan had...

Attack on Behavioral Law and Economics

Posted on June 02, 2008
I just finished listening to the audio version of economist Tim Harford's book The Logic of Life during my commutes. The thesis of the book is that people are rational and so respond to incentives. This clashes to some extent...

HOPE NOW April numbers and spin

Posted on June 01, 2008
By Alan White On Friday HOPE NOW, the mortgage servicer coalition, released its April numbers for foreclosures and loan workouts. Unlike its prior reports, the April tally does not include new foreclosures started in April. Instead of showing both the...

BK Court: Lender Can't Rely on Liar Loan App

Posted on May 30, 2008
A California couple with income of about $65,000 recently lost their home to foreclosure after having refinanced their mortgage debt up to about $680,000. How did they manage to borrow that much? Stated income (no-doc) mortgages, of course. After they...

Loan Modifications and PSA contract limits

Posted on May 29, 2008
One of the obstacles to preventing foreclosures through loan modifications has been the restrictions in securitization contracts. The pooling and servicing agreements ("PSAs") that create securitization trusts usually limit the servicer's authority to rewrite mortgage terms on behalf of the...

House and Senate Vote to Amend FCRA to Block Credit Card Truncation Suits

Posted on May 29, 2008
Congressional Quarterly's Weekly Report reports that the Senate has passed a bill, H.R. 4008, that would block credit card slip truncation suits--that is, the many suits that have been filed for violation of the FCRA provision added by FACTA barring....

Justice Department Forces Traditional Realtors To Give Up Stranglehold on Internet Home Listings

Posted on May 29, 2008
This article in yesterday's Washington Post discusses the National Association of Realtors' agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that will facilitation the listing of home sales by Internet-based realtors - - properties that were sometimes listed only by traditional brokers...

Upcoming Journal of Consumer Affairs Issue on Financial Literacy

Posted on May 28, 2008
Here is the table of contents for the upcoming Summer 2008 issue of the Journal of Consumer Affairs, Volume 42, Number 2 : Special Issue on Financial Literacy: Public Policy and Consumers? Self-Protection Editorial Prelude: Financial Literacy, Public Policy, and...

April 2008 Auto Safety Recalls

Posted on May 28, 2008
Go here to view the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations recalls for April 2008.

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