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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

Hoofnagle & King on Company Sharing of Consumer Information

Posted on December 25, 2008
Chris Jay Hoofnagle and Jennifer King, both of Berkeley, have co-authored Consumer Information Sharing: Where the Sun Still Don't Shine. Here's the abstract: In late 2007, the popular social networking site Facebook.com adopted "Beacon," an application that informs Facebook users'...

Foreclosures Ease a Bit

Posted on December 22, 2008
By Alan WhiteTwo new foreclosure reports are out today, one from HOPE Now and one from the federal bank regulators (OCC and OTS). November foreclosure filings are down in a trend that started in August, and modification numbers overall are...

New Class Action Fairness Act Decision

Posted on December 20, 2008
In a split decision, the Fourth Circuit has held in Palisades Collections LLC v. Shorts, No. 08-2188 (Dec. 16, 2008), that the Class Action Fairness Act's removal provision, 28 U.S.C. 1453(b), does not permit a counter-defendant to remove a class...

New Credit Card Regulations

Posted on December 18, 2008
OTS has now approved new credit card regulations. Their fact sheet includes the following summary of the regs: 1. Interest rate changes ? The rule (Section 535.24) requires savings associations to disclose at account opening the annual percentage rates (APRs)...

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New Credit Card Rules Expected to be Adopted Tomorrow

Posted on December 17, 2008
Reuters reports here that the Fed, the Office of Thrift Supervision, and the National Credit Union Administration are expected to adopt the regs, which run about 1,000 pages, tomorrow. The regs are expected to bar double-cycle billing, universal default, and...

Using Misleading Keyword Advertising to Draw Consumers Away from Actual Complaint Web Sites

Posted on December 17, 2008
by Paul Alan LevyThe CBS affiliate in Atlanta has been running a series about Lifestyle Lift, a company previously discussed in this blog because of its attempt to suppress criticism by filing spurious trademark claims against Justin Leonard, who operated...

New Jersey passes Foreclosure Relief Legislation

Posted on December 17, 2008
The New Jersey General Assembly passed legislation on Monday that provides homeowners with a six-month hold on foreclosure action while they seek a workout, and requires mortgage holders to maintain foreclosed properties. The legislation also appropriates funds for non-amortizing second...

November 2008 CPSC and NHTSA Recalls

Posted on December 17, 2008
November 2008 Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls are here and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recalls are here.

Could Truth in Lending Have Saved the World?

Posted on December 16, 2008
I have a theory: had Truth in Lending ("TILA") functioned better, many borrowers would have understood their payment obligations well enough not to take out the loans on which they later defaulted, the foreclosure fiasco would never have happened (or...

Public Interest Freedom of Information Clinic Launched

Posted on December 16, 2008
Public Citizen's Litigation Group has recently launched a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Clinic that will provide expanded assistance to public interest organizations seeking government-held information. Non-profit organizations need statistics, reports, and other information collected or created by government agencies...

Pity the poor debt collector?

Posted on December 14, 2008
Consumers took on millions of dollars of credit card, medical, and other debt in the last five or six years, creating lots of work for debt collectors. But debt collectors say they are hurting along with everyone else in this...

More on Consumer Transaction Costs

Posted on December 12, 2008
Two years ago I published an article on consumer transaction costs, Towards a New Model of Consumer Protection: The Problem of Inflated Transaction Costs, 47 William and Mary L. Rev. 1635 (2006). Now I've posted to SSRN a short companion...

Why true conservatives aren't the enemies of plaintiffs: Musings on CAFA Jurisdiction

Posted on December 11, 2008
Yesterday, Brian Wolfman posted a piece to this blog about a recent article by law prof and Cato ally Mark Moeller on why CAFA may be an unconstitutional extension of federal court jurisdiction. I'll leave it to y'all to read...

Peter Swire on Underenforcement in E-Commerce and Internet Harms

Posted on December 10, 2008
Peter P. Swire of Ohio State, and, as noted here, an adviser to the Obama Administration-to-be on consumer matters, has written No Cop on the Beat: Underenforcement in E-Commerce and Cybercrime. Here's the abstract: This essay gives new reasons why...

Is CAFA Unconstitutional In Some Applications? One Scholar Says Yes.

Posted on December 10, 2008
by Brian WolfmanMark Moller, a law professor, adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and former editor-in-chief of Cato's Supreme Court Review, has just written an article entitled "A New Look at the Original Meaning of the Diversity Clause." Based on...

Stephen E. Friedman Argument that the Federal Arbitration Act Doesn't Apply to Internet Transactions

Posted on December 09, 2008
Stephen E. Friedman of Widener has written Protecting Consumers from Arbitration Provisions in Cyberspace, the Federal Arbitration Act and E-SIGN Notwithstanding, 57 Catholic University Law Review (2008). Here's the abstract: Arbitration provisions are among the most significant of boilerplate contract...

Carillo on the Needs of Consumers in Multilingual Housing Markets

Posted on December 07, 2008
Jo J. Carrillo of Hastings has written In Translation for the Latino Market Today: Acknowledging the Rights of Consumers in a Multilingual Housing Market, 11 Harvard Latino Law Review 1 (2008). Here's the abstract: The Federal Truth in Lending Act...

Oren Bar-Gill and Elizabeth Warren Co-author Making Credit Safer

Posted on December 06, 2008
Oren Bar-Gill of NYU and Elizabeth Warren of Harvard have joined forces to write Making Credit Safer, 157 U. Penn. L. Rev. (2008). Here's the abstract: Physical products, from toasters and lawnmowers to infant car seats and toys to meat...

Housing Counselors Report ? Needless Foreclosures Continue Apace

Posted on December 04, 2008
The most recent housing counselor survey by the California Reinvestment Coalition reveals the continuing frustration homeowners face as they try to actualize the promises of the mortgage servicing industry. Counselors report, consistent with my research, that servicers are not willing...

Interesting Explanation for the Lesser Depression

Posted on December 03, 2008
Here's an interesting explanation for the current plight of our economy--which I've come to think of as the Lesser Depression--gleaned from the MP3 version of the ALI/ABA program The Subprime Mortgage Crisis: From A to Z. One of the speakers...

Tranche Warfare Declared

Posted on December 02, 2008
HousingWire reports that investors are suing Countrywide [complaint here] in its role as mortgage servicer, objecting to Countrywide's settlement with state regulators whereby it will modify home mortgages to reduce interest and principal. While the modifications can be justified in...

The Economic Team and the Foreclosure Crisis

Posted on December 01, 2008
By Alan White So far President-Elect Obama's economic team, while perhaps full of bright people, reflects very little diversity in viewpoint, coming mostly from the mainstream, centrist, a-little-Keynsianism-is-OK-but-not-too-much school of thought. Notably missing are any economists one might regard as...

U.S. PIRG's 23rd Annual "Trouble in Toyland" Report

Posted on November 30, 2008
U.S. PIRG has issued its 23rd annual "Trouble in Toyland" report just in time for the holidays. This report alerts consumers to the hazards of some children's toys. Read PIRG's press release and "Tips for Toy Safety" as well.

Carrillo on Consumer Challenges to Adjustable Rate Mortgages

Posted on November 29, 2008
Jo J. Carrillo of Hastings has written Dangerous Loans: Consumer Challenges to Adjustable Rate Mortgages, 5 Berkeley Bus. L. J. 1 (2008). This article has the distinction of having two abstracts. Here's the SSRN abstract: This article analyzes the relationship...

Worst yet to come?

Posted on November 26, 2008
The New York Times published a gloomy anonymous email from a banker castigating his own industry yesterday. The banker predicts further bank collapses as more credit card receivables go into default. The banker makes the point that credit card divisions...

A few answers to Tom Willging's questions

Posted on November 26, 2008
A few days ago on this blog, the ever-brilliant Tom Willging (at the Federal Judicial Center) posted a thoughtful set of comments about CAFA. At the end of his post, Tom posed some interesting questions. Always at the ready with...

Amended RESPA Regulations for Good Faith Estimates

Posted on November 25, 2008
On November 17, HUD issued amended regulations intended to simplify and provide more timely notice of mortgage settlement notices under RESPA. Here's the summary of the amendments from the HUD Federal Register Notices: The changes made by this final rule...

New Federal Judicial Center Study on the Class Action Fairness Act: One of the Authors Speaks

Posted on November 24, 2008
by Tom Willging, Federal Judicial Center[Ed. note: The following post was written by Tom Willging, a senior researcher at the Federal Judicial Center, the research arm of the federal judiciary. Tom knows as much about the inner workings of the...

Who Is the Obama Administration Seeking Advice From on Consumer Issues?

Posted on November 21, 2008
Nan Hunter of Georgetown is compiling on her blog a list of law professors in the Obama administration (If you know of others involved in consumer matters in the Obama administration--law professors or not--please post it in the comments). In...

Hot Off the Presses: Federal Judicial Center Issues New Report on CAFA

Posted on November 21, 2008
by Brian WolfmanThe Federal Judicial Center (FJC) has just released the most recent in a series of reports to the Federal Civil Rules Advisory Committee concerning the operation of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA). Read the report...

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