by Jeff Sovern For the credit reporting section of our casebook, I've been looking into studies of credit report errors. The FTC is in the process of conducting a long-term study of that subject, and along the way has conducted some pilot studies. One such pilot study subjected the credit reports of 128 people to in-depth […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Marcia Johnson of Texas Southern and Luckett Anthony Johnson have written Defending Foreclosure Actions, 49 Real Estate Law Journal 516 (2012). Here's the abstract: With the rising incidences of residential foreclosures, many homeowners are overwhelmed by the foreclosure process and anticipated costs and often opt to vacate the premises without offering any defense. The American justice […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. It's the usual right-wing attack, most of which has been said before. I refuted some of what he says in August of 2011 in a column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. One other point: Will complains that the Bureau will write law through case-by-case enforcement and that this creates uncertainty. Apparently Will […]
by Jeff Sovern Very common. In 2010, according to one study, seven percent of American households were victimized by identity thieves, costing them a total of about $13.3 billion, or, for those who experienced losses of at least one dollar caused by the misuse of personal information, an average loss of $13,160. See Lynn Langton, Identity Theft […]
Julia S. Cheney, Robert M. Hunt, Katy Jacob, Richard D. Porter and Bruce J. Summers, all of the Federal Reserve, have written The Efficiency and Integrity of Payment Card Systems: Industry Views on the Risks Posed by Data Breaches. Here is the abstract: Consumer confidence in payment card systems has been built up over many […]
On the New Shopping List: Milk, Bread, Eggs and a Mortgage. Costco offers mortgages, Home Depot provides loans, and Wal-Mart prepaid cards.
United States v. Bormes is the Supreme Court's first opinion of the term. It deals with the question of where to look to determine whether the government has waived sovereign immunity in FCRA cases. SCOTUS Blog coverage can be found here.
by Jeff Sovern President Obama has done more for consumer protection than any president in a generation. His accomplishments include signing the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, anti-predatory lending laws, and limited the power of traditionally pro-bank agencies like the OCC to preempt state laws protective of consumers; signing the Credit CARD […]
J. Michael Collins of the University of Wisconsin – Madison – Center for Financial Security, Maximilian D. Schmeiser of the Federal Reserve Board, and Carly Urban of the University of Wisconsin – Madison – Department of Economics have written Protecting Homeowners: Foreclosure Counseling Policies and Modifications of Mortgage Terms. Here's the abstract: Millions of homeowners […]

