by Jeff Sovern Allison blogged earlier about Kate Berry's American Banker article, CFPB signals pullback on discrimination cases. I wanted to say a bit more about this area. Depending on how you count, there are basically three ways to prove credit discrimination cases. One, that is theoretically possible, but that you virtually never see in practice, […]
Author Archives: Jeff Sovern
Here, in the Daily News. Excerpt: Mulvaney once called the bureau a "sad, sick joke" and co-sponsored a bill to eliminate it. The solution he has adopted to run an agency he thinks should not exist is to "be a good bureaucrat," and do what the law requires — but no more. Mulvaney even extends […]
by Jeff Sovern When the Bureau fined Wells Fargo $1 billion, it did so using its power to prohibit unfair practices in 12 USC 5531(c), 5536(a)(1)(B). (see pages 9 and 12 of the consent order). House Financial Services Committee Chair Jeb Hensarling's Financial Choice Act, passed by the House, would eliminate that power. But don't […]
by Jeff Sovern At the Teaching Consumer Law conference, on Friday, I asked questions of those who have taught consumer law recently or intend to teach it in the near future. The questions, in a somewhat different form because of the limits of the survey software, were drawn from the survey that appears below the […]
by Jeff Sovern Last Thursday, I posted on the blog Republican FTC Commissioners Name Payday Lender Lawyer to Run Consumer Protection Bureau Over Dem Commissioners' Objections. Alan Kaplinsky posted in response A reply to Professor Sovern, in which he wrote that "Jeff’s characterization of Andrew as a “Payday Lender Lawyer” in the title of his blog post […]
Rory Van Loo of BU has written Regulatory Police, forthcoming in the Columbia Law Review. Here is the abstract: The front line for business regulation — Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) engineers, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) examiners, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) inspectors, among others — guard against toxic air, financial ruin, and deadly explosions. Like police officers […]
Brian Feinstein of Penn's Wharton School has written Judging Judicial Foreclosure, 15 Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, 406 (2018). Here is the abstract: For the third time in the last several decades, policymakers are contemplating an overhaul of mortgage‐finance regulations. Despite the considerable attention paid to how ex ante regulations affect the availability of credit and the appropriateness […]
David L. Noll of Rutgers has written Public Litigation, Private Arbitration? 18 Nev. L.J. 477 (2018). Here is the abstract: How should legal disputes be allocated between litigation and arbitration? Given strong incentives for many actors to arbitrate everything, the question turns fundamentally on the scope of arbitration under the applicable law. In "Re-Inventing Arbitration: How Expanding the […]
by Jeff Sovern The NY Times has the story here. Excerpt: The director, Andrew M. Smith, has recently represented Facebook, Uber and Equifax — all companies with matters before the commission — and plans to recuse himself from dozens of cases now that he has been confirmed for the post. And in 2012, Mr. Smith was also […]
by Jeff Sovern Industry lawyer Thomas B. Hudson of Hudson Cook has authored Arbitration Agreements: Not Always Good All the Time for AutoDealer Today, in which he writes: An arbitration agreement is the dealer’s first and best line of defense against class-action lawsuits. If you think that isn’t reason enough, have a word with the many […]