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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

2009 Selected Consumer Statutes Now Available

Posted on August 25, 2009
Here, for $36. Here's the description: This statutory supplement is the most up-to-date statutory collection available for use in a consumer protection course or for practicing attorneys. The 2009 edition includes the Credit CARD Act of 2009, changes to Regulation...

Official Word from US Courts -- Feel Free to Use RECAP With Our Blessing

Posted on August 25, 2009
by Paul Alan Levy I got a call this afternoon from Michel Ishakian, the Deputy Chief for IT Policy and Budget at the Administrative Office of the United States courts. She assured me that they have no problem with counsel...

Hartford Courant Consumer Columnist Laid Off

Posted on August 22, 2009
Sad news for those who care about consumer protection: the Hartford Courant has laid off consumer columnist George Gombossy. According to the Times coverage, Gombossy attributes his firing to his refusal to stop criticizing advertisers. The Courant claims the position...

CPSC and NHTSA Recalls for July 2009

Posted on August 21, 2009
The July 2009 Consumer Product Safety Commission product recalls are here. The July 2009 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration vehicle recalls are here.

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Federal court using scare tactics to block sharing of public records

Posted on August 21, 2009
It appears that the US Courts, concerned about competition from software that offers the possibility of widespread free access to documents filed on federal judicial dockets, for which the public would otherwise have to pay the courts at the rate...

Credit Card Company Fees on the Rise

Posted on August 20, 2009
New credit card rules go into effect today. (And others will go into effect in February, when new Congressional legislation becomes effective.) Today's rules are relatively minor, such as giving consumers more time to pay their bills. Next year's changes...

More on "Clunkers" Program: Some Dealers Pulling Out; Biggest Sellers Not From Detroit

Posted on August 20, 2009
This story in today's Washington Post explains that half the dealers in the New York City area and at least one in Maryland is pulling out of the "cash for clunkers" program because of delays in getting paid by the...

Doctors as Bankers

Posted on August 19, 2009
My colleague, Jim Hawkins, has posted an interesting article on SSRN. Here is an abstract: In a variety of medical contexts, doctors play a prominent role as bankers, lending directly to patients or arranging for patients to obtain loans from...

New Book by Bill Patry -- who is back to blogging

Posted on August 18, 2009
Bill Patry has just published an intellectually provocative and useful polemic, Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars, that urges public attention to excessive incursions on the public domain undertaken at the behest of copyright holders through what Patry calls ?The...

Bank of America stops arbitration?Another problem with consumer arbitration

Posted on August 17, 2009
You may have read that Bank of America has decided to stop requiring its customers to arbitrate disputes. Many appluaded this as a victory for consumers, which it is. It also is another example of why consumer arbitration must be...

Kurt Eggert Article on Securitization

Posted on August 17, 2009
Kurt Eggert of Chapman has written The Great Collapse: How Securitization Caused the Subprime Meltdown, 41 Conecticut Law Review. Here's the abstract: This Article builds on existing criticism of securitizing subprime loans and argues that one of the primary causes...

Will the New Disclosure Date for Mortgage Terms Lead to Delays?

Posted on August 16, 2009
Bob Tedeschi has an interesting column in today's Times about the impact of the new rule that obliges lenders to provide the final TILA disclosures for mortgages three days before closing, as opposed to the old rule that they could...

Judges and Credit Card Cases

Posted on August 15, 2009
by Jeff Sovern Suppose you're a judge presiding over cases in which debt buyers--who have bought credit card debt from credit card companies or, often, other debt buyers--sue the credit card holders for the amounts due on the credit card....

Snake Oil Salesman Liable for $50 Million: Apparently Can't Cure Cancer

Posted on August 14, 2009
by Christopher L. Peterson The Boston Herald reported today that a federal judge awarded the Federal Trade Commis sion nearly $50 million in damages in its case against Donald Barrett. Mr. Barrett is an infomercial pitchman who hawked his ?Coral...

Bank of America Abandons Mandatory Arbitration

Posted on August 13, 2009
CNBC is reporting that Bank of America will no longer require that consumer disputes involving credit cards, among other matters, be resolved by arbitration.

Andrew Serwin on Privacy Litigation

Posted on August 12, 2009
Andrew B. Serwin of Foley & Lardner LLP has written Poised on the Precipice: A Critical Examination of Privacy Litigation. Here's the abstract: A collection of factors has caused the United States to be poised on the precipice of a...

Times Story on Medical Information Privacy

Posted on August 09, 2009
Today's Times has an article, And You Thought a Prescription Was Private, about the sale of information about patients' use of prescriptions. The article also reports about how February's stimulus bill prohibits the sale of much personal health information...

Debtor's Prison in Indiana

Posted on August 07, 2009
Apparently in the southern counties of Indiana, judges are not in sympathy with our state constitution's ban on imprisonment for debt, which dates back to 1851. Judgment debtors whose sole income is exempt Social Security, and whose assets fall below...

Jeff Gelles Column on How Deregulation Both Helps and Hurts Consumers in Calling Overseas

Posted on August 07, 2009
Here.

Illinois sues Wells Fargo for Discrimination

Posted on August 06, 2009
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan filed a Complaint on July 31 alle ging that Wells Fargo violated state fair lending and consumer protection laws in its mortgage operations. The 62-page complaint elaborates in great detail the compensation systems that induced...

The Tug of War Over Who Will Protect Consumers Continues . . .

Posted on August 06, 2009
by Jeff Sovern The Times has another article today about the tug of war between existing federal regulators and the Obama administration over the desirability of establishing a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency or allowing the existing agencies to keep...

FTC Seeks to Protect on On-Line Privacy

Posted on August 05, 2009
Ed Mierzwinski over at U.S. PIRG's Consumer Blog has this nice post concerning today's New York Times story on the FTC's efforts to combat commercial monitoring of consumers' on-line behavior.

More on Cash for Clunkers

Posted on August 05, 2009
Here's another critique of the CARS program by Derek Thompson at theatlantic.com.

HAMP: Is It Helping?

Posted on August 04, 2009
By Alan White Today the Administration released its first report on the number of homeowners helped by its Home Affordable mortgage modification program (HAMP). While the numbers of trial modifications in the first three months of the program (250,000) may...

The Fed's Failure to Act and the Proposed CFPA

Posted on August 01, 2009
by Jeff Sovern Opponents of a new Consumer Financial Protection Agency sometimes argue that the power to be given to the proposed CFPAs can be exercised by existing agencies, and so it's not necessary to create a new agency. But,...

Statutory Compilation To Be Out for Fall Classes

Posted on July 31, 2009
by Jeff Sovern The 2009 edition of our Selected Consumer Statutes should be out in time for fall classes. It's the most up-to-date statutory collection available for use in a consumer protection course or for practicing attorneys. The 2009 edition...

The House Votes for an Additional $2 Billion for Cash for Clunkers Program, But Is that Sensible?

Posted on July 31, 2009
The House of Representatives just voted another $2 billion for the cash-for-clunkers (CARS) program that we've been covering extensively on this blog. On to the Senate, where some press reports suggest that passage may be more difficult. Meanwhile, Public Citizen's...

Menu Labeling--From a New York City Experiment to Part of the Health Care Reform Bill

Posted on July 30, 2009
by Deepak Gupta In today's mail, I received my copy of the August issue of ABA Journal magazine, which has an article on the mandatory disclosure of calorie counts on fast-food menus. We've blogged several times here about the legal...

Posner v. Thaler on Behavioral Economics and the CFPA

Posted on July 30, 2009
by Deepak Gupta Although his views on economic regulation and the conservative movement seem to have evolved over the years, and aren't always easy to pin down, Richard Posner is at bottom a proponent of old-style neoclassical economics premised on...

ABA Panel on Arbitration's Future

Posted on July 30, 2009
I'll be speaking on a panel about arbitration (including recent developments in Congress and the courts) at the ABA's annual meeting in Chicago tomorrow. If you're at the meeting, I hope you'll be able to stop by. It's called "Arbitration:...

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