by Jeff Sovern Because of the virus, people are experiencing more losses than usual and are not able to mark their passing with the rituals that help in times of death: in-person funerals, wakes, shiva calls, and the like. Consequently, death is becoming even harder for survivors than in normal times. Members of Congress could […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Pamela Foohey, Dalié Jiménez, & Christopher K. Odinet have written CARES Act Gimmicks, How Not to Give People Money During a Pandemic and What to Do Instead, online at the Illinois Law Review. Excerpt (footnotes omitted): As a short term solution, money equivalents should have begun with an immediate nationwide eviction and foreclosure moratorium, accompanied by a debt […]
by Jeff Sovern In an April 16 letter, ACA International, which describes itself as "The Association of Credit and Collection Professionals," complained that "Advocacy organizations have made several recent claims that, 'debt collectors are eager to garnish [stimulus] payments – threatening families’ access to food, shelter, and medicine, and endangering public health.'” I'm not sure […]
by Jeff Sovern How should Congress handle the problem of damage to the credit of consumers who default because of the coronavirus pandemic? Congress has already taken its first stab at the problem in Section 4021 of the CARES Act. That provision states that if lenders work out an "accommodation" with consumers under which the […]
According to the Visual Capitalist, it would take an hour, three minutes, and thirty seconds to read the Microsoft TOS. The web site compares the length of various TOS for popular web sites.
We received the following announcement from the Berkeley Center for Consumer Law and Economic Justice: [T]he THIRD annual Consumer Law Scholars Conference (CLSC) will take place on March 4-5, 2021. And to keep things lively (and a bit more convenient for those on the East Coast), we will be holding next year's Conference at […]
by Jeff Sovern According to standard readability measures, arbitration clauses require a lot of education to understand. The CFPB arbitration study reported that the average arbitration clause was written at a level that required more than two years of college to grasp. A study that I co-authored found that consumers didn't understand arbitration clauses at […]
Matthew A. Edwards of Baruch has written The Concept and Federal Crime of Mortgage Fraud, 57 American Criminal Law Review (2020). Here is the abstract: The impact of mortgage fraud on the United States financial and economic system during the past twenty years has been severe and enduring. Nothing illustrates this fact better than the […]
by Jeff Sovern So Reuters reports here. According to the report, "customers applying for a new mortgage will need a credit score of at least 700, and will be required to make a down payment equal to 20% of the home’s value." One implication is that JPMorgan Chase at least suspects that traditional credit scores […]
by Norman I . Silber and Jeff Sovern The American Prospect recently published a short essay we wrote suggesting that the federal government pick up the tab for part of consumers’ credit card interest rate payments while the coronavirus rages. Some very knowledgeable consumer law experts have generously taken the time to give us their […]