The top consumer protection official at the Federal Trade Commission is barred from handling cases involving more than 100 different companies due to conflicts of interest from his prior work as a private sector attorney, according to documents obtained by Public Citizen. Andrew Smith, who last May became the director of the FTC’s Consumer Protection […]
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Two Senators — Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) — are introducing a bill today that would ban the use confessions of judgment by predatory lenders. The issue is a provision in some loan agreements for small businesses, in which the lender requires the small-business borrower to agree not to defend themselves in court […]
Originally posted in Take Care Blog Law prof Mark Totten has written an interesting piece for the Take Care Blog entitled Proving that Mick Mulvaney Compromised CFPB Enforcement. We posted Tuesday about a Washington Post article, which cited Mark's data on the CFPB's waning enforcement efforts. Read Mark's post and take a look at the chart below.
The Washington Post reports today on the Consumer Financial protection Bureau, one year after Director Richard Cordray, who was appointed by President Obama, stepped down and was replaced with OMB Director Mick Mulvaney. If you care about consumer financial protection, it's not a happy story. One year after Mulvaney’s arrival, he and his political aides […]
by Paul Alan Levy A new Virginia case presents one of the less-frequently-litigated issues in the realm of the First Amendment right to speak anonymously — when the identity of an anonymous blogger (or other Internet speaker) can be demanded not so that she can be served with a summons in a lawsuit alleging that […]
The Hill reports that changing the name of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could cost the businesses it regulates more than $300 million. Banks, lenders and other financial services firms subject to CFPB supervision could be required to spend millions of dollars if the agency goes through with a rebranding proposal from acting Director Mick […]
The Federal Communications Commission recently released a proposal "to reduce unwanted robocalls and support blocking of spam robotexts." A Washington Post editorial today argues that the FCC proposal on spam texts "empowers companies instead of consumers." The gist of the issue is this: The FCC announced in November that it plans formally to classify text […]
Amendments to Rules 5, 23, 62, and 65.1 went into effect yesterday. You can view them, as well as amendments to the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure, here. Of particular interest for consumer law are the amendments to Rule 23, which provide grounds for the district court's approval of a proposed class-action settlement, disclosure of […]
When a federal district court certifies, refuses to certify, or decertifies a class, Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(f) gives a party 14 days to ask a court of appeals for permission to appeal the ruling. But what if a party seeks permission outside the 14-day window because some circumstance prevented action within 14 days or […]
The Ombudsman explains: "At the Ombudsman’s Office, we are an independent, impartial, and confidential resource that assists consumers, financial entities, consumer or trade groups, and others in informally resolving process issues with the Bureau. In short, we advocate for fair process in consumer financial protection. As in previous years, our annual report outlines our work […]