Category Archives: Consumer Law Scholarship

Paper Explains and Critiques the Account Stated Cause of Action

International & Comparative Law Fellow Emanwel J. Turnbull at Maryland has written Account Stated Resurrected: The Fiction of Implied Assent in Consumer Debt Collection.  Here's the abstract: When are modern American consumers like 17th century merchants? The answer is “now”. Often, in collection lawsuits, creditors allege that consumers in debt are liable for an “account […]

Ian Ayres et al. Analyze CFPB Consumer Complaints

Ian Ayres of Yale, together with  Jeff Lingwall and Sonia Steinway, have written Skeletons in the Database:  An Early Analysis of the CFPB's Consumer Complaints.  Here's the abstract: Analyzing a new data set of 110,000 consumer complaints lodged with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, we find that (i) Bank of America, Citibank, and PNC Bank […]

Terrific Craswell Paper on Disclosures

by Jeff Sovern I just read a terrific article by Richard Craswell of Stanford, Static Versus Dynamic Disclosures, and How Not to Judge Their Success or Failure, 88 Washington Law Review 333 (2013). Here's the abstract: Disclosure laws can serve many different purposes. This Article is the first to distinguish two of those purposes, which […]

Susan Block-Lieb Paper on Accountability and the CFPB

Though the confirmation of CFPB Director Cordray mutes the issue of CFPB accountabilty, it does not moot it.  Those who remain interested in the issue may wish to consult Susan Block-Lieb of Fordham's paper, Accountability and the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection, 7 Brooklyn Journal of Corporate, Financial & Commercial Law (2013).  Here's the abstract: […]

Amy Schmitz Paper on Cramming

Amy Schmitz of Colorado has written Ensuring Remedies to Cure Cramming, 14 Cardozo J. of Conflict Resolution 877 (2013).  Here's the abstract: The unauthorized addition of third party charges to telecommunications bills ("cramming") is a growing problem that has caught the attention of federal regulators and state attorney generals.  This Article therefore discusses the problems […]

Fisher Study of Stalled Foreclosures

Linda Fisher of Seton Hall has written Shadowed by the Shadow Inventory: A Newark, New Jersey Case Study of Stalled Foreclosures & Their Consequences, forthcoming in the UC Irvine Law Review.  Here's the abstract: Foreclosure activity has declined recently in some areas, but a number of states, such as Florida, New Jersey, and Illinois, showed […]

Papke Paper on RTO, Payday Lending, and Title Pawn Businesses

David Ray Papke of Marquette has written Perpetuating Poverty: Exploitative Businesses, the Urban Poor, and the Failure of Liberal Reform. Here's the abstract: This article scrutinizes the rent-to-own, payday lending, and title pawn businesses – all of which target and exploit the urban poor.  Each type of business has developed a sophisticated business model that […]

Paper on the “Show Me the Note” Defense

Bradley T. Borden and David J. Reiss, both of the Brooklyn faculty, and William KeAupuni Akina, a student at the school, have written Show Me the Note!, Westlaw Journal Bank & Lender Liability (June 3, 2013).  Here's the abstract: News outlets and foreclosure defense blogs have focused attention on the defense commonly referred to as […]

Molly Rose Goodman on Toxic Titles and Title Insurance

Kathleen Engel of Suffolk has forwarded an article one of her students, Molly Rose Goodman,  wrote for the Real Estate Law Journal.  The piece is titled The Buck Stops Here: Toxic Titles and Title Insurance, and the cite is 42 Real Est. L. J. 5 (2013).  Here's the abstract: By failing to properly transfer ownership of loans […]

Amy Schmitz on Gender and Consumer Contracts

Amy Schmitz of Colorado has written Sex Matters: Considering Gender in Consumer Contracts, 19 Cardozo Journal of Law & Gender 437 (2013). Here's the abstract:   We hear about the so-called “War on Women” and persisting salary gaps between men and women in the popular media, but contracts scholars and policymakers rarely discuss gender. Instead, […]