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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

NCLC Updates

Posted on August 25, 2010
This is an unusually packed update with lots of important info--please read to the end! 1. NCLC analysis of many little-known, key consumer law changes created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act is found at www.nclc.org/dodd-frank...

Jeff Gelles Column: How the Pew Trusts Aided Credit Card Reform

Posted on August 25, 2010
Here. A story about how individual credit card issuers refused to act until all were forced to, and how regulation could help when the market failed.

Confessions of Former Debt Collectors

Posted on August 24, 2010
The CNNMoney website has a fascinating collection of accounts by former debt collectors, describing what they thought of the job (most but not all of them hated it) and why they left it. Here are a few excerpts: I was...

The Content of Consumer Law Classes II

Posted on August 24, 2010
Want to know what consumer law professors cover in class? Read The Content of Consumer Law Classes II, forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer & Commercial Law. Here's the abstract This paper reports on a 2010 survey of law professors...

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Call for Papers/Roundtable Participants for AALS Meeting Panel on Credit CARD Act

Posted on August 23, 2010
AALS Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law Two Solicitations: The Section on Commercial and Related Consumer Law is seeking participants for a roundtable discussion at the AALS Annual Meeting and is also separately soliciting essays for a print symposium...

The $20 Billion BP Oil Spill Fund and the Civil Justice System

Posted on August 20, 2010
According to this article in today's New York Times . . . People and businesses seeking a lump-sum settlement from BP's $20 billion oil spill compensation fund will most likely have to waive their right to sue not only BP,...

Is Mandatory Consumer Arbitration Dying?

Posted on August 19, 2010
U.S. PIRG's Consumer Blog reports on this story from Money Talk News suggesting that mandatory consumer arbitration is on its way out. It notes, for instance, that the recently-enacted federal financial reform legislation empowers the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau...

Implications of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act for Consumer Law Practice

Posted on August 19, 2010
The National Consumer Law Center has released an eight-page summary of the Dodd-Frank Act's implications for consumer law practice, covering changes to TILA and RESPA, foreclosure-prevention measures, and preemption, among other things. Read it here. NCLC is also presenting a...

Elizabeth Warren Meets With Lobbyists For Big Banks

Posted on August 18, 2010
We have covered the campaign to urge President Obama to nominate Elizabeth Warren to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. (Okay, we got a little carried away!) This recent biographical...

Public Citizen Questions BP Trust Fund

Posted on August 17, 2010
Public Citizen has raised concerns about the $20 billion BP Trust Fund meant to compensate victims of the oil spill. To quote Public Citizen's President Rob Weissman: Public Citizen has identified a series of concerns about the structure of the...

Misidentification of consumer results in $150,000 judgment.

Posted on August 17, 2010
by Richard Alderman In an interesting case, the Third Circuit has upheld a $150,000 verdict against Trans Union for misidentifying a consumer as being included on an ?OFAC (Office of Foreign Assets Control) Advisory? compiled by the Treasury Department...

Mortgage servicers failing borrowers and Treasury

Posted on August 17, 2010
by Alan White Mortgage servicers, including the big four banks, continue to perform poorly on their contracts with the US Treasury to modify loans and prevent foreclosure losses, much of the latter falling ultimately on taxpayers. A new survey by...

Consumer credit agreements, tax

Posted on August 15, 2010
Consumer credit agreements, tax forms, regulations: They're all crammed with gobbledygook, says Alan Siegel, and incomprehensibly long. He calls for a simple, sensible redesign -- and plain English -- to make legal paperwork intelligible to the rest of us...

Washington Post Profiles Elizabeth Warren

Posted on August 13, 2010
In today's Washington Post, Brady Dennis has a mini-bio of Elizabeth Warren, from her childhood in Oklahoma, where she was raised by parents whose lives were still scarred by the Great Depression, to her earliest research on bankruptcy filings, through...

When Will the President Nominate the CFPB Director?

Posted on August 11, 2010
by Jeff Sovern At the risk of being a nag, I'm wondering when the President will nominate the new director of the CFPB. I have two fears. First, if the nominee cannot be confirmed before the new Congress takes over,...

St. Louis Post-Dispatch Column on Forced Arbitration

Posted on August 10, 2010
St. Louis Dispatch consumer reporter and columnist Matthew Hathway ran a nice piece this past weekend on forced arbitration, which provides a good overview for those unfamiliar with the issue--i.e. most Americans. Read it here.

Libel Tourism Bill Signed Into Law -- Including Section 230 Protection

Posted on August 10, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy Today President Obama signed the libel tourism bill, HR 2765, that protects against enforcement within the United States of defamation judgments obtained abroad that are inconsistent with the protections of the First Amendment, 28 USC �...

Top-Side Amicus Briefs Filed in AT&T v. Concepcion

Posted on August 09, 2010
Readers of this blog have already heard a lot about AT&T v. Concepcion -- the upcoming case in which the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether the Federal Arbitration Act preempts state-law rulings that class-action bans are unconscionable. Today, the...

CL&P Roundup

Posted on August 06, 2010
by Deepak Gupta Banks Pressure Consumers As Overdraft Deadline Nears: Facing an August 15th deadline for existing bank customers to opt in to high-cost overdraft programs, bankers are using aggressive, often misleading marketing to target the most vulnerable cusomers, according...

Houlihan Smith Drops Its Lawsuit Against 800Notes

Posted on August 06, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy As previously discussed here, Houlihan Smith, a Chicago investment bank, obtained a temporary restraining order against 800Notes.com after it refused to remove negative comments from consumers (and former employees) but then was denied a preliminary injunction...

State Anti-Predatory Lending Laws Mitigated Foreclosures

Posted on August 06, 2010
by Alan White Following up on our prior studies, we have posted a new paper finding that states with effective anti-predatory mortgage lending laws had fewer risky subprime loan originations and lower default and foreclosure rates than states without effective...

Colbert Report Takes on CFPB, Elizabeth Warren, Mandatory Arbitration, and Barney Frank

Posted on August 05, 2010
Among other things, listen to Stephen read from the mandatory arbitration clause in his credit card agreement. Enjoy: The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30cConsumer Protection Agency - Barney Frankwww.colbertnation.com Colbert Report Full Episodes2010 ElectionFox News

Will the Supreme Court Issue a Wildly Activist Decision in ATT Mobility v. Concepcion?

Posted on August 05, 2010
by Paul Bland, Claire Prestel, and Melanie Hirsch The consumer and civil rights communities are closely watching AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion, a case that will be argued in the Supreme Court this November. Depending on how broadly the Court reads...

Amici Invited to Argue in Hot News Appeal

Posted on August 04, 2010
by Paul Alan Levy In a sign of interest in the broader policy ramifications of the appeal of the ?hot news? ruling that forbade flyonthewall.com from providing prompt reports on investment recommendations, the United States Court of Appeals for the...

The Push For Elizabeth Warren To Head The CFPB Continues

Posted on August 04, 2010
162 former students and 140 academics have written President Obama urging Elizabeth Warren's appointment as head of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Jeff Gelles Comment on WSJ Credit Card Tricks Article

Posted on August 04, 2010
by Jeff Sovern Brian posted a link earlier this week to the Wall Street Journal article on new tricks to get around the Credit CARD Act. Jeff Gelles of the Philadelphia Inquirer has written a comment on the WSJ article,...

WSJ: Credit Card Companies Have "New Credit-Card Tricks"

Posted on August 03, 2010
The Wall Street Journal explains here that after the new Credit Card Act became effective last February, credit card companies were barred from making profits in certain ways. For instance, the Act generally bans "universal default" -- that is, credit...

Petitioner's Brief Filed in AT&T v. Concepcion (Enforceability of Class-Action Bans)

Posted on August 03, 2010
We're previously mentioned AT&T v. Concepcion, a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether class-action bans in consumer and employment contracts may be held unconscionable, and hence unenforceable, under generally applicable state contract law...

Unregulated Chemicals in Consumer Products

Posted on August 02, 2010
Today's Washington Post has this article about "huge gaps in the government's knowledge about chemicals in everyday consumer products, from furniture to clothing to children's products." As the article explains: "[u]nder current laws, the government has little or no information...

FDA Proposes to Limit Use of Antibiotics in Animal Feed to Protect Human Health

Posted on August 02, 2010
Antibiotics are regularly used in animal feed to fatten-up animals quickly, lowering producer's costs and increasing profits. But, according to this article in the Des Moines Register, "[d]octors and public health experts have long worried that there's a human price...

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