(HT: Rosemary Shahan). Might be worth assigning to students learning about fraud and UDAP statutes.
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
by Jeff Sovern A professor who is new to teaching consumer law has asked about skills exercises (also called active learning exercises) professors could require of students. I suggested having a student write a demand letter that didn’t violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (or that did), writing a privacy policy, or perhaps one of the many […]
Mary L. Heen of Richmond has written Nondiscrimination in Insurance: The Next Chapter, 49 Georgia Law Review (2014-2015). Here is the abstract: For nearly 150 years, American insurance companies have engaged in race and gender pricing practices that would be illegal if followed today by any other major commercial enterprise. The insurance industry has defended its […]
Wenli Li of the Philadelphia Fed, Ishani Tewari of the Yale School of Management, and Michelle J. White of California, San Diego's Department of Economics and the National Bureau of Economic Research have written Using Bankruptcy to Reduce Foreclosures: Does Strip-Down of Mortgages Affect the Supply of Mortgage Credit? Here's the abstract: We assess the […]
Robert C. Hockett of Cornell has written 'We Don't Follow, We Lead': How New York City Will Save Mortgage Loans by Condemning Them, 124 Yale Law Journal Forum 131 (2014). Here is the abstract: This brief invited essay lays out in summary form the eminent domain plan for securitized underwater mortgage loans that the author […]
by Jeff Sovern The press release is here. The rules themselves are here. Law360's Evan Weinberger reports here on whether they might become a model for the CFPB or other states. I am very curious to see how effective the new rules will be. They will surely help some consumers. Because the rules require disclosures, and […]
Here. An excerpt: Right now, the CFPB is finishing up the second phase of its study, which will hone in on consumers' understanding of arbitration clauses. At that point, it will decide whether it needs to act. If the bureau's findings are anything like those of the law school study, it must. Being stripped of our […]
Alan Schwartz of Yale has written Regulating for Rationality, Forthcoming in the Stanford Law Review. Here's the abstract: Traditional consumer protection law responds with various forms of disclosure to market imperfections that are the consequence of consumers being imperfectly informed or unsophisticated. This regulation assumes that consumers can rationally act on the information that it […]