Bradley T. Borden and David J. Reiss, both of the Brooklyn faculty, and William KeAupuni Akina, a student at the school, have written Show Me the Note!, Westlaw Journal Bank & Lender Liability (June 3, 2013). Here's the abstract: News outlets and foreclosure defense blogs have focused attention on the defense commonly referred to as […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Kathleen Engel of Suffolk has forwarded an article one of her students, Molly Rose Goodman, wrote for the Real Estate Law Journal. The piece is titled The Buck Stops Here: Toxic Titles and Title Insurance, and the cite is 42 Real Est. L. J. 5 (2013). Here's the abstract: By failing to properly transfer ownership of loans […]
Amy Schmitz of Colorado has written Sex Matters: Considering Gender in Consumer Contracts, 19 Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender 437 (2013). Here's the abstract: We hear about the so-called “War on Women” and persisting salary gaps between men and women in the popular media, but contracts scholars and policymakers rarely discuss gender. Instead, […]
by Jeff Sovern Here (behind paywall). Excerpt: Court decisions tied to the 1968 law fell 18% year over year during a12-month period that ended May 31, to 1,037, data from the National ConsumerLaw Center shows. That number is down 38% from the peak two years earlier. The pace of new litigation is also slowing. […]
by Jeff Sovern From time to time, reports appear that Senator Portman is trying to broker a compromise that would permit confirmation of Richard Cordray as CFPB director. And some, including Ballard Spahr's Alan Kaplinsky, have predicted that a compromise will be eventually be reached. I don't have any inside information–it's not as if legislators […]
Congress could still act after Monday to reduce rates retroactively, however. The Wall Street Journal has more here. An excerpt: As of Thursday afternoon, Democratic backers of the one-year freeze of current rates said Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) had promised there would be a vote on July 10 on their bill. An aide […]
by Jeff Sovern Former governor, HUD general counsel, and current head of the American Bankers Association Frank Keating has penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal (behind paywall) with the headline above. Keating complains that HUD has adopted the disparate impact test for discrimination; that the CFPB's qualified mortgage rule (QM rule) will restrict […]
Here. Cordray's recess appointment expires in December. What happens then? Under Dodd-Frank, Cordray's deputy takes over as acting director. Right now, Steve Antonakes is the acting deputy. But some of those who argue Cordray's appointment is invalid claim also that his naming Antonakes as acting deputy is invalid. Of course, the Supreme Court may rule that […]
by Jeff Sovern Here's the blurb I provided: "Powerful interest groups seldom lose major battles in Congress, but that is exactly what happened when Congress created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in 2010. Larry Kirsch and Robert N. Mayer have produced, in Financial Justice: The People's Campaign to Stop Lender Abuse, an eminently readable and […]
Here (but behind a paywall). Among the points made in the article are that the recess appointment of current CFPB Director Richard Cordray is likely to expire before the Supreme Court rules and that banks could be hurt if Cordray's appointment is ruled unconstitutional because that would leave banks subject to the Bureau but not […]