Here. More than half the class members have submitted claims. Claimants are expected to recoup 80% of what they spent. The article attributes the high participation rate to the publicity the case garnered as well as the amounts individual claimants have at issue, as much as $20,000.
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Prentiss Cox of Minnesota, Amy Widman of Northern Illinois, and Mark Totten of Michigan State have written Strategies of Public UDAP Enforcement, Harvard Journal on Legislation, Forthcoming. Here's the abstract: Laws protecting consumers from unfair and deceptive acts and practices – commonly called “UDAP” laws – have played a stunning role in recent years. As […]
Here is The Hill's Report. Excerpt: Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee are eyeing April markups for Dodd-Frank legislation, meaning Democrats have just about a month to settle on a strategy to defend the CFPB. Some Democrats think working with Republicans on some changes to the CFPB could be sound policy. Several House Financial […]
by Jeff Sovern We've blogged several times about the House Financial Service Subcommittee hearing on the constitutionality of the CFPB, at which PHH's lawyer Ted Olson, among others, testified. Now that I have listened to the hearing, I have a few reactions. Personally, I found the questioning by the Democratic members disappointing. For the most part, […]
David Horton of California, Davis has written Arbitration About Arbitration Stanford Law Review, Vol. 70, (2017 Forthcoming). Here is the abstract: Recently, the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) has nearly eliminated consumer and employment class actions, sparking vigorous debate. Yet another important development in federal arbitration law has received less […]
Ray Brescia of Albany, along with Albany alum Ralph Scunziano, the Empire Justice Center, and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD) have created a New York Bank Ratings Index. The web site is here; a report on the project here, and Ray also has a Medium op-ed titled Putting Consumer Protection in the […]
Brian posted yesterday about the House hearing. For those who don't want to listen to the recording, you can find reports in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Rep. Ann Wagner takes aim at consumer protection chief), Housing Wire (Tensions escalate at House hearing on constitutionality of the CFPB), Money (This Lawmaker Just Gave the Perfect Defense […]
The book is Meltdown: The Financial Crisis, Consumer Protection, and the Road Forward (Praeger 2017), by research economist Larry Kirsch and sociologist Greg Squires (George Washington University Sociology Department). Here's an abstract: Meltdown is the first book length account of the CFPB from its inception through 2015. With a foreword based on an interview with […]
by Jeff Sovern I originally had a different title for this post in mind, but I didn't have the discipline to resist the one above. Not that anyone should have any doubts, but the CFPB director is not the executive the article refers to. Anyway, the House Financial Services Committee is having a hearing titled […]
by Jeff Sovern The Department of Justice has now filed its brief in PHH, arguing that the CFPB as created by the Dodd-Frank Act was unconstitutional because the statute did not give the president the power to fire the Bureau's director without cause, and that the appropriate remedy is the one selected by the original […]