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

Posner on Car Title Loans, Predatory Lending, and the Commerce Clause

Posted on January 29, 2010
by Deepak Gupta Yesterday, Judge Posner issued an opinion that may be of some interest to those following the great debate over predatory lending and behavioral economics. As with many Posner opinions, its significance is of course enhanced by the...

Vision Media Requests Injunction Against Blogging That ?Cast[s it] in a Negative Light?

Posted on January 28, 2010
When it added Public Citizen?s defense of Julia Forte?s 800Notes.com to the Citizen Media Law Project database the Project took note of a bizarre motion filed by Vision Media, asking the court to prohibit any public discussion about its lawsuit,...

What Payment Schedule Governs When the TILA Disclosure Statement Conflicts with the Note?

Posted on January 26, 2010
by Jeff Sovern Over the last couple of days, I've blogged about how for adjustable loans, the Fed's Commentary directs lenders to state in the Truth in Lending disclosure statement monthly payment figures that assume that interest rates remain unchanged...

More on How the Fed's TILA Disclosures Misled the Subprime Borrowers

Posted on January 25, 2010
by Jeff Sovern Yesterday I blogged about how the Fed's Commentary directs lenders making Truth in Lending disclosures for adjustable loans to assume that interest rates will remain the same as they are at the date of closing. Unfortunately, this...

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

How the Fed's Disclosures Misled the Subprime Borrowers About Their Monthly Payments

Posted on January 24, 2010
Yesterday the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ran a piece I wrote about how the Fed's TILA disclosures misled the subprime borrowers. Because of space constraints, the Post- Gazette had to cut the piece; I've posted it below in its original form: Only...

Paper Arguing Against Privacy

Posted on January 22, 2010
Thomas M. Lenard of the Technology Policy Institute and Paul H. Rubin of Emory University - Department of Economics have written In Defense of Data: Information and the Costs of Privacy. Here's the abstract: The commercial use of information on...

Vision Media TV Tries to Evade Section 230 Immunity to Squelch Criticism

Posted on January 21, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy In several posts on this blog, Greg Beck and I have written about the crucial role played by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act in fostering free speech online ? and consumer commentary and criticism...

FHA Issues New Standards for Home Loans

Posted on January 20, 2010
Last December, we blogged here that the Federal Housing Administration was proposing tougher standards for home loans. The New York Times reports here that the FDA will today finalize those rules, which include higher premiums for mortgage insurance and tougher...

More on Consumer Financial Protection Agency's Prospects in the Senate

Posted on January 20, 2010
Following up on Jeff's post from yesterday, PIRG's consumer blog has this post on the fight in the U.S. Senate to save the legislation that would establish a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, with links to additional materials.

The Fight for the CFPA Continues

Posted on January 20, 2010
The Times reports that President Obama met with Senator Dodd yesterday to push for the CFPA. Over the weekend, Times columnist Gretchen Morgenson wrote a piece, Credit Cards and Reluctant Regulators, about how credit card companies are doing an end...

Search engine competition on user privacy?

Posted on January 20, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy In the wake of Google's bold move toward the possibility of closing down its China operations over the Chinese government's demands for censorship coupled with its support for hacking, Microsoft has opened up a new front...

The Second Mortgage Problem ? Banks Holding Out

Posted on January 19, 2010
by Alan White The biggest obstacle to reducing principal and effectively working out home mortgages in trouble is the fact that half the homes in foreclosure may have second mortgages or home equity lines of credit. The investors holding first...

Consumer Financial Protection Agency Proposal Said to be in Trouble in Senate

Posted on January 19, 2010
by Jeff Sovern The Wall Street Journal story is here. Senator Dodd is said to be willing to settle for a beefed-up consumer protection agency within another federal agency, perhaps the Treasury. Of course, the Office of the Comptroller of...

Stephen P. King Paper on Tort Law Reform's Effect on Consumers

Posted on January 18, 2010
Stephen P. King of the Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University has written Does Tort Law Reform Help or Hurt Consumers?. Here's the abstract: Legal limits on insurance damages claims have been introduced in Australia, the United States and...

Carol Necole Brown Paper on Reverse Redlining Issues

Posted on January 17, 2010
Carol Necole Brown of North Carolina has written Intent and Empirics: Race to the Subprime. Here's the abstract: The United States? history of racially discriminatory banking, housing, and property policies created a community of black Americans accustomed to exploitative financial...

Exploding Mortgages

Posted on January 17, 2010
By Alan White Of all the subprime mortgages ever made from 2000 through 2007, 14% have been foreclosed already, another 4% are in foreclosure now, and another 9% are now delinquent, for a total of a 27% failure rate. In...

Colbert Explains

Posted on January 17, 2010
the financial crisis, foreclosures, securitization...

SCOTUS Takes Arbitration Case, Justice Department to Increase Fair Credit Enforcement, and Repoed Toddler

Posted on January 16, 2010
by Jeff Sovern A few recent consumer law reports: The SCOTUS Blog has reported that the Supreme Court has granted cert in what could be an important arbitration case. Here's their description: Docket: 09-497 Title: Rent-A-Car, West, Inc. v. Jackson...

Obama Foreclosure Plan Still Falling Short

Posted on January 15, 2010
Treasury has issued its report on mortgage modifications under HAMP for December. The total number of permanent HAMP mods rose from 31,000 at the end of November to 66,000 at the end of December. In other words, HAMP is resulting...

More Regulation Z Amendments to Implement the Credit CARD Act

Posted on January 14, 2010
The Fed has announced new amendments to Regulation Z to implement the provisions of the Credit CARD Act that go into effect next month. The Fed is still working on amendments to implement the Credit CARD Act measures that take...

Securitization is a Problem for Mortgage Workouts

Posted on January 14, 2010
By Alan White The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency's 3rd quarter report on foreclosures and mortgage modifications reveals the huge disparities between workouts offered to homeowners whose mortgages are securitized, compared to those with mortgages held on the...

2010 Update to Consumer Law Casebook Available

Posted on January 13, 2010
by Jeff Sovern Thomson/West should shortly make available via email the 2010 update to our consumer law casebook. The update includes some developments from the last year, such as the Cuomo case, and of course earlier materials, such as problems...

A Consumer Protection Perspective on the AALS Conference

Posted on January 12, 2010
by Jeff Sovern After attending the last three AALS conferences, I wanted to voice a consumer protection perspective. Professors attend the AALS conferences for three reasons that I know of: to learn from the programs; to network; and to travel...

Baltimore Fair Lending Suit Rejected

Posted on January 12, 2010
By Alan White In an interesting application of the Iqbal/Twombley "I know it when I see it" plausibility standard, a second judge granted a motion to dismiss filed on essentially the same grounds as the motion that was denied by...

Product Recalls for December 2009

Posted on January 11, 2010
The last set of product recalls for the decade: Go here for December 2009 motor vehicle recalls from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and here for December 2009 product safety recalls from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Study Shows That Spending in Economic Stimulus For Transportation Has Had Virtually No Effect on Local Unemployment

Posted on January 11, 2010
A study conducted by the Associated Press and reviewed independently by five economists shows that conomic stimulus projects approved by Congress for transportation (that is,for building and repairing roads and bridges) has had virtually no effect in bringing down local...

Preventing Future Economic Crises Through Consumer Protection Law or How the Truth in Lending Act Failed the Subprime Borrowers

Posted on January 11, 2010
A draft of my article Preventing Future Economic Crises Through Consumer Protection Law or How the Truth in Lending Act Failed the Subprime Borrowers, parts of which I spoke about at the AALS, is now available on SSRN. Here's the...

The Right of Publicity Takes a Hit

Posted on January 08, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy Two controversies about the use of images of the Obama family received attention this week, with resulting recognition that possible right of publicity claims would not only be unwarranted but would offend the First Amendment. Given...

Carfax Class-Action Settlement Rejected

Posted on January 05, 2010
by Deepak Gupta Way back in May 2007, we posted here about objections by Public Citizen and the Center for Auto Safety to a nationwide-class action settlement involving Carfax. The underlying suit alleged that Carfax deceived customers by concealing the...

Rethinking the Foreclosure Plan

Posted on January 04, 2010
By Alan White This story in the New York Times paints a grim picture of the Obama/Geithner foreclosure crisis response. The main theme is correct: without reducing principal balances, no plan will keep homeowners in their homes. A kind of...

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...