CL&P Blog: Consumer Law

Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Consumer Law Blogs

OR PHONE (866) 635-1838 for Bankruptcy Help, (866) 635-6190 for Divorce,
(866) 635-2689 for Personal Injury or (866) 635-9402 for Criminal Defense

Find a Local Lawyer

Bankruptcy (866) 635-1838
Divorce (866) 635-6190
Personal Injury (866) 635-2689
Criminal Defense (866) 635-9402

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 Obama Speaks on Financial Reform and the Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Posted on March 20, 2010
President Obama's Saturday morning address was devoted to the need for financial reform legislation. A significant proportion of his address urged the establishment of a truly independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency. The President said that the CFPA was a key...

The Hot News Doctrine Rides Again

Posted on March 19, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy Does a firm that expresses an opinion "own" that opinion, and thus have the ability to prevent others from reporting on the fact that the firm has expressed the opinion? When a newspaper or other entity...

Viacom's Slippery Marketing Practices Revealed in Its Copyright Suit Against YouTube/Google

Posted on March 18, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy The parties to litigation often abuse the process of demanding that court documents be kept under seal to protect confidential information, using the claim of a need for confidentiality for the ulterior objective of preventing the...

Daniel Carpenter's Times Op-Ed on Why the CFPA Should Not be in the Fed

Posted on March 18, 2010
Here. Excerpts: The Fed has a long and largely undistinguished history of consumer protection. During the 1970s, officials at the Fed opposed the Community Reinvestment Act, which attacked home lending discrimination, and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, which compelled banks...

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Federal Courts' More Constructive Response to RECAP?

Posted on March 17, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy Last year I expressed concern in this space that the federal courts seemed to be responding to the RECAP the Law project -- which is designed to build up a database of federal court records that...

Online (Non) Privacy

Posted on March 17, 2010
Today's New York Times explains "How Privacy Vanishes Online." Among other things, the article explains how, by combining information from a variety of sources, someone can correctly "guess" a lot of people's social security numbers: Even more unnerving to privacy...

Some Bad News Buried in the Dodd Financial Reform Bill?

Posted on March 17, 2010
The financial reform bill introduced by Sen. Chris Dodd on Monday would not create an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency as does the financial reform bill passed earlier by the House of Representatives. Rather, Sen. Dodd's bill would create a...

Is the Obama Administration More Open Than Its Predecessor?

Posted on March 16, 2010
On his first full day in office, President Obama issued a memorandum on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He quoted Justice Louis Brandeis's famous line that "sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants" and directed federal agencies...

Journal of Consumer Affairs Spring 2010 Issue Available

Posted on March 16, 2010
Here. From the Table of Contents: Are Consumers Disadvantaged or Vulnerable? An Examination of Consumer Complaints to the Better Business Bureau (p 3-23) DENNIS E. GARRETT, PETER G. TOUMANOFF The Effects of Advertising, Social Influences, and Self-Efficacy on Adolescent Tobacco...

Senator Dodd's Bill

Posted on March 15, 2010
The full text of the financial services reform bill introduced by Senator Dodd today, which includes a new Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection within the Federal Reserve, is available here. At his press conference Senator Dodd seemed to emphasize that...

Senator Dodd To Propose Financial Reform Bill Today

Posted on March 15, 2010
As discussed in this Washington Post story, after weeks of trying to work out a bi-partisan compromise on a financial reform bill with Senator Corker of Tennessee, Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) is going it alone. His bill would place a...

A Year and a Half After the Economy Crashes, and This Is What We Get?

Posted on March 15, 2010
by Robert Weissman A year and a half after the collapse of Lehman Brothers and Wall Street's subsequent implosion - and amidst the worst recession of the last 70 years - Congress has failed to adopt a financial reform package...

"Did a Lack of Consumer Protection Cause the Financial Crisis?"

Posted on March 15, 2010
Tomorrow at noon, the Cato Institute's Policy Forum will host what promises to be an interesting and lively debate over that question, featuring Janis Bowdler, National Council of La Raza; Thomas Durkin, Former Economist, Federal Reserve Board; Ed Mierzwinski, U...

Dodd Financial Regulation Bill Under Scrutiny from Senate Democrats

Posted on March 15, 2010
Over at PIRG's Consumer Blog, Ed Mierzwinski says that Senator "Dodd['s] Wall Street plan leans toward banks, not [the] American people." He notes that Senators such as Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, and Tom Kaufman may vote "no" if the bill...

Apparently, Citizens United doesn't believe in free speech for the anti-corporate side

Posted on March 15, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy Citizens United, fresh from its Supreme Court victory giving corporations the right to bankroll election campaigns, has sent a trademark demand letter to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, complaining that a Facebook page entitled "Citizens United Against...

The Importance of CFPA Independence

Posted on March 15, 2010
In the Capitol Hill publication, The Hill.

Unexpected Views on the CFPA

Posted on March 14, 2010
by Jeff Sovern A couple of reports on the Consumer Financial Protection Agency proposal that go against type: First. 19 current and former members of the Fed's Consumer Advisory Council, including our own Alan White, have joined in a letter...

Paul Krugman on Healthcare Reform

Posted on March 12, 2010
Read this.

Immergluck on Federal Preemption of State Antipredatory Lending Laws

Posted on March 12, 2010
by Jeff Sovern I've been reading Dan Immergluck's fine book, Foreclosed: High-Risk Lending, Deregulation, and the Undermining of America's Mortgage Market (2009). At pages 177-78, he has as good a description of the competition among regulators for lenders as I've...

NY's lawyer advertising rules are unconstitutional

Posted on March 12, 2010
by Greg Beck The Second Circuit today affirmed a district court decision holding many of New York's 2007 lawyer advertising amendments unconstitutional under the First Amendment. Public Citizen challenged the rules on the ground that they served no legitimate consumer-protection...

New Restrictions on Overdraft Fees; Bank of America Opts Out

Posted on March 11, 2010
As this Washington Post article explains, under a Federal Reserve rule effective July 1, banks will be prohibited from imposing debit card overdraft fees unless the consumer opts in. So, without opting in, no overdraft purchase or ATM withdrawal will...

New NCLC Practice Tools

Posted on March 10, 2010
1. The 2010 Edition of Surviving Debt (494 pp.) ($20) due from the printers on March 19, is our most popular book. Geared for consumers, counselors, paralegals, and even attorneys new to consumer law, experienced attorneys regularly take advantage of...

The Revolving Door Between Auto Regulators and The Auto Industry

Posted on March 09, 2010
Does the close relationship between federal auto regulators and auto industry insiders lead to lax regulation? Does it cause regulators to ignore or react too slowly to safety hazards? This article in today's Washington Post documents the revolving door and,...

The Latest on Financial Reform

Posted on March 08, 2010
First we hear that the Senate financial reform bill will kill off the idea of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Agency and instead create a new bureau or division within the Federal Reserve (or is it in the Treasury Department?)....

Jeff Gelles Column on Why We Need an Independent CFPA

Posted on March 08, 2010
Here. Tellingly, Gelles describes how a troublesome credit card practice that elicited only an advisory letter from OCC, that as Gelles puts it, "told card issuers to do a better job of warning customers they could be shafted," was later...

Cross-posted from Baseline Scenario:

Posted on March 07, 2010
Cross-posted from Baseline Scenario: Uncontrolled Lending to Consumers Spawned the Financial Crisis This post was contributed by Norman I. Silber, a Professor of Law at Hofstra Law School, and Jeff Sovern , a Professor of Law at St. John?s University,...

National Community Reinvestment Coalition Conference

Posted on March 07, 2010
It's scheduled for March 10-13. Topics include foreclosure prevention, consumer protection, fair housing, financial regulatory reform, job creation/green jobs, access to loans for small businesses, community reinvestment, and preservation of affordable housing...

CL&P Roundup

Posted on March 04, 2010
by Deepak Gupta It's been an eventful week in consumer law and policy in Washington so far. Here are a few highlights: Senate confirms two new Federal Trade Commissioners -- Julie Brill and Edith Ramirez. Brill worked on a wide...

Vision Media Tries to Escape Consequences of Its Frivolous Defamation Claims

Posted on March 04, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy I have blogged before about a suit brought by "Vision Media Television," against the consumer-complaint website 800Notes.com, for allowing the posting of messages that criticize Vision Media's misleading telemarketing claims. The messages reported that Vision Media...

Comedy Central Invites Litigation Against Jon Stewart

Posted on March 04, 2010
Disregarding the doctrine of fair use, Comedy Central has announced that it is ready to sue bloggers and web sites that used unauthorized clips from its shows, arguing that "if (websites) are making money on our copyrighted content, then that...

Previous | Next

Related Law Bulletins

New Baptist Covenant Blog
Last week, I pointed to the New Baptist Convenant website, now onl...

The Mexico Trucker Blog
I've written before about the perceived problems with relaxed rest...