by Jeff Sovern Regular readers of the blog know that we often write about the ineffectiveness of disclosures, and plenty of others have the same complaint. But here's a bit of good news: a study by Michael Grubb, Paul Adams, Andrea Caflisch, Darragh Kelly, and Jeroen Nieboer, and Matthew Osborne, discussed at a recent FDIC Consumer […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Ann M. Burkhart of Minnesota has written Fixing Foreclosure, 36 Yale Law & Policy Review (2018). Here is the abstract: Since the American Revolution, mortgage foreclosures have consisted of a public auction of the mortgaged property. Judges and state legislators at the time believed that an auction was the best way to obtain a fair price for the […]
Camilla E. Watson of Georgia has written Federal Financing of Higher Education at a Crossroads: The Evolution of the Student Loan Debt Crisis and the Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Here is the abstract: Currently, there are 44.2 million Americans holding student loan debt collectively totaling $1.5 trillion. This massive debt has a […]
Yonathan A. Arbel of Alabama has written Reputation Failure: Market Discipline and Its Limits. Here is the abstract: Free-market advocates seek to repeal broad swaths of tort, contract, and consumer law, trusting reputation to provide effective market-discipline. Their core belief is that reputation assures honest dealings because a seller reputed to sell inferior goods will lose […]
by Jeff Sovern According to Private Enforcement in Administrative Courts, 72 Vanderbilt Law Review, (Forthcoming), by Michael Sant'Ambrogio of Michigan State, in the year ending March 31, 2017, the government filed only eight consumer protection cases in federal court, which contrasts with the 9,706 cases filed by private plaintiffs. Sometimes we see the argument that we don't need private enforcement […]
by Jeff Sovern My colleague, Vincent DiLorenzo, has written Fintech Lending: A Study of Expectations Versus Market Outcomes, Forthcoming in Review of Banking & Financial Law. Here is the abstract: This paper documents the expectations for the fintech lending industry, which has emerged in this decade, and compares such expectations to market outcomes. It presents an […]
Samuel Issacharoff and Florencia Marotta-Wurgler, both of NYU, have written The Hollowed Out Common Law. Here's the abstract: The electronic marketplace poses novel issues for contract law. Contracts created through browsewrap, clickwrap, and shrinkwrap (contracts whose embedded terms are only available after purchase) poorly fit doctrines that emerged from face-to-face offer and acceptance, the mutual execution […]
by Jeff Sovern A number of sources have reported on a survey of more than one thousand metastatic breast cancer patients presented recently at an American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) symposium that found that debt collectors had contacted about half about cancer care bills. HCP said that 49% had heard from debt collectors while AccountRecovery.net put […]
Here, by Brad Wolverton & Alex Richards. I don't want to quote too much, so here is an incomplete excerpt: The federal watchdog agency created to protect consumers is not regulating two of the country’s fastest-growing financial institutions despite receiving voluminous complaints about them, NerdWallet has found. Escaping scrutiny are Green Dot Corp. — which […]
Here. Excerpt from Jeff Bater's report: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took only three enforcement actions in the third quarter of 2018 and is on pace for the lowest yearly total in its seven years of existence. The bureau levied $1.6 million in penalties in the three-month period ending in September, compared to $7.3 million […]