Daniel Collier, Assistant Professor of Adult and Higher Education, University of Memphis and Dan Fitzpatrick, Research and Assessment Specialist, University of Michigan, have written Jubilee and Jubilation: An Examination of the Relationship between Public Service Loan Forgiveness and Measures of Well-Being. Here is the abstract: A team of researchers at the University of Memphis and the […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
We received the following announcement: Automating Bias Symposium Cardozo Law School January 25, 9:30- 4:45 Algorithmic models built using machine learning and large volumes of personal data are increasingly used to target consumers with credit offers, assess consumers’ creditworthiness, price credit, provide debt management advice to consumers, resolve credit disputes, and more generally automate the […]
Each month, NPR broadcasts a story, “Bill of the Month,” about a medical billing issue. In this month’s, a hospital confused two patients who have the same first and last names (their middle initials are different, but that didn’t prevent the mistake) and sent a bill to the wrong one. Eventually, a debt collector dunned […]
by Jeff Sovern As I prepare to teach consumer law in the spring, I’m leaning towards adding a new case to the course, Bibbs v. TransUnion, LLC, 43 F.4th 331 (3rd Cir. 2022). First, take a look at what the court called a snapshot of the plaintiff’s credit report: Do you understand it (if […]
by Jeff Sovern New York Times reporter Emily Flitter's book The White Wall: How Big Finance Bankrupts Black America is an exploration of racism in American financial institutions, including banks, insurers, and brokerage houses. The book includes stories of how Black customers and employees are mistreated by these institutions, and places their treatment in a […]
Here, in an article by AnnaMaria Andriotis, an excellent reporter on consumer protection issues (behind paywall). The practice, known as credit washing, often leads to temporary removal of the damaging item from the consumer's credit report, and a correspondingly evanescent improvement in the consumer's credit score. Excerpt: Credit washing has slowed down the process of […]
Jonathan A. Obar of the Department of Communication Studies at York University and the Quello Center at Michigan State and Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch of the Department of Communication at Connecticut have written Older Adults and ‘The Biggest Lie on the Internet’: From Ignoring Social Media Policies to the Privacy Paradox, 16 International Journal of Communication 4779 […]
We received the following call for papers. More information is available here. 18th International Association of Consumer Law Conference (IACL) Topic: Challenges and Unanswered Questions of Consumer Law CALL FOR PAPERS Abstract submission deadline: 16 December 2022 Feedback: 20 February 2023 Guidelines: max. 300 words, 5-7 keywords Dates: Wednesday, 19 July 2023 – Friday, 21 […]
Claire Johnson Raba of Irvine has written Co-Opting California Courts: How Private Creditors Have Turned the Judiciary Into a Predatory Student Debt Collection Machine. Here is the abstract: In a report, Claire Johnson Raba, a SBPC fellow and clinical teaching fellow at the University of California Irvine School of Law’s Consumer Law Clinic, shows the […]
Here. Some other notable findings: Requests to stop particular types of communication are often ignored by collectors. Most survey respondents indicated that debt collectors generally do not comply with requests from consumers to cease contacting them via a particular method of communication—in violation of Regulation F. * * * Collection of time-barred debts continued, including […]