Author Archives: Jeff Sovern

Paige Skiba and Carlie Malone paper compares the effects of installment loans and payday loans

Carlie Malone and Paige Marta Skiba, both of Vanderbilt, have written Installment Loans. Here’s the abstract: Installment loans have increasingly replaced traditional payday loans in the short-term, small-dollar credit market. Installment loans, often offered by the same lenders who provide payday loans, have larger principal amounts, longer repayment periods, and lower interest rates relative to payday […]

Floyd article on virtual RTO agreements

Carrie Floyd of Michigan has written New Tech, Old Problem: The Rise of Virtual Rent-to-Own Agreements, forthcoming at 65 Boston College Law Review 3 (2024). Here is the abstract: This Article explores how fintech has disrupted the traditional rent-to-own (RTO) industry, giving rise to new, virtual RTO agreements (VirTOs). These VirTOs have enabled the RTO […]

David Berman payday lending article

David Berman has written Lending Experimentalism: A New Regulatory Approach to Payday Loans, Forthcoming in the Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law Policy, Here is the abstract: Payday loans entangle consumers with few alternatives in catastrophically harmful cycles of borrowing. But because of their design, payday loans are vexingly difficult to regulate effectively. This article explains how […]

Just how expensive do the new AAA Arbitration Rules make mass arbitration? And how much will they suppress claims?

The industry often claims that arbitration is cheaper than litigation for consumers. Well, not so much any more–if that was ever true–after the AAA’s new mass arbitration rules that Adam Pulver reported about on January 29. Adam mentioned the $3,125 initiation fee. In addition, under the new rules, for cases that proceed beyond the initiation […]

Spitko Article: Arbitration Secrecy

E. Gary Spitko of Santa Clara has written Arbitration Secrecy, 108 Cornell Law Review 1729 (2023). Here’s the abstract: Parties to an arbitration contract may agree to a secrecy clause that will govern their arbitration process to protect the confidentiality of their proprietary or personal information. Of great concern, however, they also may use such an […]

My draft article arguing that discrimination is unfair within the meaning the CFPB’s and FTC’s UDAP statutes . . .

. . .  titled Is Discrimination Unfair? is now available. I would love to hear any comments anyone has. Here’s the abstract: Though multiple federal laws explicitly bar discrimination in consumer transactions, many consumer transactions fall in the gaps between those laws. But recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have attempted […]

NY’s Governor, AG Support NY’s UDAAP Statute Expansion

The bill would add unfairness and abusiveness to the NY UDAAP statute, increase statutory damages to $1,000, and allow businesses to recover under the statute, among other things. This follows NY’s blocking credit bureaus from reporting medical debt. More here.

Baltimore Sun Guest Essay: You’re giving away your rights in those online contracts you don’t read

Here, with Myriam Gilles of Cardozo, Prentiss Cox of Minnesota, and David Vladeck of Georgetown. Excerpt: Perhaps the most consequential documents ever produced in this country are the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. The Constitution identifies our most important rights, while the Declaration explains why the deprivation of those rights justified the fight for independence. […]

NY Times article about how cars track consumers

  The article, by Kashmir Hill, is headlined Your Car Is Tracking You. Abusive Partners May Be, Too. Excerpt: Modern cars have been called “smartphones with wheels” because they are internet-connected and have myriad methods of data collection, from cameras and seat weight sensors to records of how hard you brake and corner. Most drivers don’t realize […]