WaPo: Trump is systematically backing off consumer protections, to the delight of corporations

Here.  Excerpt: “There hasn’t been a lot that has been methodical about this presidency, but I do think Trump is systematically dismantling consumer protections,” said Mark Totten, a Michigan State University law professor who studies the enforcement of consumer protection laws and a 2014 Democratic candidate for Michigan attorney general. The new direction affects agencies […]

Why are democrats helping Trump dismantle Dodd-Frank? Read all about it.

That's the title of this article by Mike Konzcal. Then, read this article in The Hill explaining that "[t]he battle pits moderate Democrats up for reelection this year in states such as Missouri, West Virginia, North Dakota and Montana against Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and other progressives, and comes as the party braces for primary fights between the left and […]

ACLU report on criminalization of debt

The ACLU recently released a report on the criminalization of private debt: An estimated 77 million Americans—one in three adults—have a debt that has been turned over to a private collection agency. Thousands of these debtors are arrested and jailed each year because they owe money. Millions more are threatened with jail. The debts owed […]

Illustration of the problem of judges substituting their own opinions of facts

by Stephen Gardner On February 27, the Northern District of California issued an opinion on a motion to dismiss in Becerra v. The Coca-Cola Company. The court got the law right, but then ruled based on incorrect conclusions on disputed facts. There are two parts to the opinion. First, the court analyzed Coke’s various attempts to avoid […]

Ninth Circuit Holds National Banks Must Comply With State Laws Requiring Interest on Mortgage Escrow Accounts

National banks have long argued for broad preemption of state laws that would otherwise apply to their activities, and their federal regulator, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has often gone along. In an important decision issued Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that preemption is more limited than the banks […]

Register Now for the Tenth Teaching Consumer Law Conference

"Teaching Consumer Law–Where We've Been–Where We're Going" will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, May 18-19th. The Conference is designed for those teaching consumer law, those interested in teaching consumer law full-time or as an adjunct, and anyone interested in discussing the consumer law issues law professors are thinking about. The registration fee is […]

Horton Empirical Study of How Arbitrators and Judges Decide Differently on Whether to Allow Class Actions

David Horton of California, Davis has written Clause Construction: A Glimpse into Judicial and Arbitral Decision-Making, Duke Law Journal, Vol. 68, Forthcoming. Here is the abstract: For decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has insisted that forcing a plaintiff to arbitrate — rather than allowing her to litigate — does not affect the outcome of a dispute. […]

Mulvaney’s Evisceration of the CFPB Continues in Multiple Ways

by Jeff Sovern The CFPB protects consumers in a number of ways. Perhaps the three most important things it does are enforce the law, supervise some financial institutions, and create rules.  A less important mechanism, but still important, is maintaining its complaint database. All of these seem to be coming under attack under Interim director […]

Hyman & Kovacic Article on Who Should Do What on Privacy

David A. Hyman of Georgetown and William E. Kovacic of GW and , King's College London – The Dickson Poon School of Law have written Implementing Privacy Policy: Who Should Do What?. Here's the abstract: Academic scholarship on privacy has focused on the substantive rules and policies governing the protection of personal data. An extensive literature […]

FTC Releases Annual Summary of Complaints Reported by Consumers

The Federal Trade Commission reports that the number of consumer complaints about fraud dropped in 2017, but consumers reported losing more money than they did in 2016. The data book includes national statistics, as well as a state-by-state listing of top report categories in each state, and a listing of metropolitan areas that generated the […]