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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

Foreclosure Update

Posted on September 17, 2009
By Alan White Two years into the foreclosure crisis, the problem is still getting worse. July saw a new record high in foreclosure starts of 280,000 for the month, according to HOPE NOW. Mortgages are entering the foreclosure pipeline at...

Company hawking ?free? credit scores goes after blogger who calls this a bait and switch

Posted on September 17, 2009
Adaptive Marketing, which ran into controversy a few months ago for using former New York Times columnist Ben Stein in its TV ads for ?free credit scores,? has brought a pre-litigation discovery proceeding against a blogger using the pseudonym ?flaneur...

New Paper Debunks Industry Arguments that CFPA Should Preempt State Law

Posted on September 16, 2009
NCLC has just released a white paper Preemption and Regulatory Reform: Restore The States? Traditional Role As ?First Responder,?that has particular relevance to bank lobbyists' attempts to expand bank immunity from state law in the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency...

A New Piece in the "MERS" Puzzle

Posted on September 15, 2009
I?ve spent more time than I care to admit lately puzzling out what I believe is the most peculiar company in American consumer finance. Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.?more commonly known as ?MERS?? maintains a national database tracking ownership and...

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Op-ed in Support of Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Posted on September 14, 2009
Check out this Detroit Free Press op-ed by U. Mich. law professor John Pottow in support of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency. Thanks to U.S. PIRG's consumer blog for pointing it out.

Journal of Consumer Affairs Special Issue on Privacy Literacy

Posted on September 11, 2009
Here's the table of contents from the Journal of Consumer Affairs, Fall 2009, Volume 43, Number 3 Special Issue on: Privacy Literacy -- How Consumers Understand and Protect Their Privacy: Editorial Prelude by guest editors of special issue Jeff Langenderfer...

Chamber of Commerce Launches Anti-Consumer Financial Protection Agency Website

Posted on September 10, 2009
Yikes! Your friends at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have created this website dedicated to defeating the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency. It's aptly named "Stop the CFPA."

Catholic University Program on Proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency

Posted on September 10, 2009
Catholic University Law School is presenting what sounds like a terrific program on the proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency on October 20, 2009 from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. Admission will be by reservation only. Speakers include Michael Barr, Assistant Secretary...

HAMP Update

Posted on September 09, 2009
By Alan White Trial mortgage modifications under the Home Affordable mortgage program (HAMP) have reached about the same levels that servicers were achieving voluntarily in the first quarter of 2009. Treasury's unhelpful data presentation in its second monthly report on...

New York Times Story on Debit Card Overdraft Fees

Posted on September 09, 2009
by Brian Wolfman The front page of the New York Times has this excellent piece on overdraft fees imposed on debit card holders. As the beginning of the article explains, debit card holders are not told at the point of...

More on over-draft fees

Posted on September 09, 2009
Over-draft fees are big business everywhere. In Australia, the fees account for over $1 billion in revenue. This is all, however, about to change. Banks in Australia are eliminating over-draft fees, after a proposed law limiting the charge to a...

More on Credit Card Marketing to People Under 21

Posted on September 08, 2009
by Brian Wolfman U.S. PIRG's Consumer Blog has this nice post concerning a series of related articles on credit card marketing on college campuses and student debt more more generally. The new Credit CARD Act, which takes effect next February,...

NHTSA Recalls for August 2009

Posted on September 08, 2009
Here are the vehicle (and related) recalls issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for August 2009.

Consumer Credit DVD Available to Consumers

Posted on September 08, 2009
The Center for Consumer Law at the University of Houston has produced an educational DVD entitled "Money, Credit and the Law--Know Your Rights." Funded in part by grants from the Texas Bar Foundation and Money Management International, the video shows...

Froot Loops a Smart Choice?

Posted on September 07, 2009
by Jeff Sovern Friday's Times brought For Your Health, Froot Loops about an industry-backed labeling campaign called "Smart Choices" that's ?designed to help shoppers easily identify smarter food and beverage choices.? Designed to sell food might be closer to the...

Court to Greenmailers: Drop Dead

Posted on September 04, 2009
by Stephen Gardner A bane of honest class action lawyers (and there are plenty of them, the vast majority) is the creature that I call a greenmailer -- a lawyer who objects to a good class action settlement only in...

More On Increasing Credit Card Fees

Posted on September 03, 2009
by Brian Wolfman Last month, I blogged here about large increases in credit card rates and fees that may be tied to recently enacted federal credit card reform legislation (which mainly goes into effect next February). Consumers Union has posted...

Even Consumer Law Professors Have Consumer Law Problems

Posted on September 03, 2009
by Jeff Sovern Last winter, I bought a computer for my daughter. The computer came with a free sample of Norton's security program already installed (It's likely that Norton paid the manufacturer to have that program installed as a marketing...

Should Bank Regulation Be Up To One Federal Regulator?

Posted on September 02, 2009
In this New York Times op-ed, Sheila Bair (pictured to the right), the Chair of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, explains why she supports a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency but thinks it would be a mistake to create one...

August 2009 CPSC Recalls

Posted on September 02, 2009
Go here for the August 2009 product safety recalls from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Busted, the Book

Posted on September 02, 2009
by Jeff Sovern I've been listening to the audio version of New York Times reporter Edmund Andrews' memoir, Busted: Life Inside the Great Mortgage Meltdown (a portion of the book was published in the Sunday Times magazine under the title...

American Council On Consumer Interests Conference and Call for Papers

Posted on September 01, 2009
The American Council on Consumer Interests will hold its 2010 conference in partnership with the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta on April 14-16, 2010. Deadlines for submissions begin October 15, 2009. More information, including the Call for Papers can be...

A Solution to Incomprehensible Contracts?

Posted on August 30, 2009
Back on August 20, the Times published John Aloysius Cogan's op-ed piece, Plain English Is the Best Policy about the unintelligibility of health insurance policies. My letter appeared on Friday, under the heading "No More Gobbledygook: To the Editor: Re...

Ten Practice Implications of NAF Withdrawal from Consumer Arbitrations

Posted on August 28, 2009
The Minnesota consent order requiring the National Arbitration Forum (NAF) to cease by July 24 all new consumer arbitrations has ten dramatic practice implications, detailed in NCLC REPORTS, Deceptive Practices & Warranties Edition (July/August 2009)...

Chrysler Assumes Post-Bankruptcy Product-Liability Claims

Posted on August 28, 2009
by Adina Rosenbaum In a reversal of its position in the bankruptcy proceeding, Chrysler has agreed to assume liability for people injured after the Chrysler bankruptcy by vehicles sold before the bankruptcy. As background, in late May and early June,...

Debate on Forced Arbitration With Alan Kaplinsky

Posted on August 28, 2009
by Deepak Gupta This week, the Legal Talk Network hosted a debate over mandatory arbtiration between me and Alan Kaplinsky, a corporate defense lawyer known for pioneering the use of arbtiration clauses by banks and lenders. I was surprised by...

An Experiment on What Advertising Content is Worth

Posted on August 27, 2009
Marianne Bertrand of University of Chicago - Booth School of Business; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), Dean S. Karlan of Yale University - Economic Growth Center; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Abdul...

Call for Papers

Posted on August 27, 2009
We've received the following Call for Papers: Papers are invited for the 5th edition of the Consumer Journal, a publication of the Consumer Awareness Organisation, a non-governmental organisation based in Nigeria. Interested contributors should send their papers to the address...

Wyoming Food Safety, Security, and Sources Conference

Posted on August 27, 2009
Food Safety, Security and Sources, A Recipe for Tough Times is the theme for the 9th annual Consumer Issues Conference at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming, to be held September 24th and 25th. An exciting program is being...

Roberds and Schreft on the Economics Behind Data Security, Privacy, and Identity Theft

Posted on August 26, 2009
William Roberds and Stacey L. Schreft , both of the Fed, have written Data Security, Privacy, and Identity Theft: The Economics Behind the Policy Debates, 23 Economic Perspectives (2009). Here is the (very short) abstract: In this article, we explore...

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