Joel Langdon of Emory has writen The Importance of a Promise: Underwater Mortgages and a Municipal Rescue Attempt Through Eminent Domain, forthcoming in 45 Urb. L. (Summer 2013). Here's the abstract: Millions of Americans purchased real estate during the housing bubble of the mid 2000s, when prices reflected a constant upward trend, and real estate […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
M. Todd Henderson of Chicago has written Self-Regulation for the Mortgage Industry. Here's the abstract: This Article proposes an alternative to direct government regulation of mortgage brokers: self-regulation of the mortgage industry that mimics the arguably successful self-regulation of the securities industry that has occurred over the past two centuries. Although not without its problems, […]
Dustin A. Zacks of King, Nieves & Zacks PLLC has written Robo-Litigation, 60 Cleveland State Law Review 867 (2013). Here's the abstract: The recent housing crisis increased demand for attorneys to process foreclosures through state courts. This increase in demand was coupled with a desire for the fastest and cheapest legal services available. As a […]
by Jeff Sovern Yesterday, I was on a panel at the Annual Meeting of the American Council on Consumer Interests, along with Dr. Yilan Xu, a professor at the University of Illinois in agricultural and consumer economics. Dr. Xu's talk concerned a natural experiment in Cleveland, Ohio. Cleveland had enacted an anti-predatory lending ordinance which was […]
by Jeff Sovern Here (behind a paywall, unfortunately). The article implies that the Bureau will listen to collector phone calls (at least, that's how I interpret the statement that the Bureau will audit the "handling of phone calls"). That contrasts with what Fred Williams reported in his book Fight Back Against Unfair Debt Collection Practices (which […]
by Jeff Sovern Chris Willis of Ballard Spahr's CFPB Monitor recently blogged about whether disparate impact can properly be termed discrimination and therefore prohibited by ECOA. For those who don't know, courts generally recognize three ways to prove discrimination in violation of ECOA: direct evidence, disparate treatment (except in the Seventh Circuit) and disparate impact, or as […]
by Jeff Sovern This is completely self-serving, but law professor readers of this blog may be interested to learn that the fourth edition of our casebook, Consumer Law, Cases and Materials, Fourth Edition is expected to be released in July, in time for fall classes. Our goal was to continue comprehensive coverage of core consumer law subjects (like deceptive […]
So says Time in Why Banks Love Debit Cards Again. The report begins as follows: Debit cards were supposed to be toast. The industry started writing their obituary when financial reform targeted overdraft fees and interchange or “swipe” fees, which had made debit cards extremely lucrative for banks. So why is it that banks are […]
The prolific Chris Jay Hoofnagle of Berkeley and Jan Whittington of the Department of Urban Design and Planning, University of Washington have written The Price of 'Free': Accounting for the Cost of the Internet's Most Popular Price, forthcoming in 61 UCLA Law Review (2014). Here's the abstract: Offers of “free” services abound on the internet. […]