This week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed a lawsuit in a federal district court against the debt collection law firm Weltman, Weinberg & Reis for falsely representing in millions of collection letters sent to consumers that attorneys were involved in collecting the debt. The law firm made statements on collection calls and sent collection […]
by Jeff Sovern I finally finished listening to the House Financial Service's Committee's April 5 hearing: a more than five-hour long interrogation of CFPB Director Richard Cordray. I am torn between thinking every American should listen to some of it–to see how awful some members of Congress are–and thinking no one should have to listen to […]
Here. Quoting now: “Gary Cohn gave Richard Cordray, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an ultimatum over dinner a few weeks ago: Go the easy way, or go the hard way. “Cohn, President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, had heard the rumors that Cordray wanted to run for governor in Ohio. He left […]
Here. It's the "On Money" column by Gary Rivlin. Excerpt: Three days after Donald Trump was sworn in as president, the United States government fined a couple of Citigroup subsidiaries $28.8 million for giving the runaround to tens of thousands of borrowers who were trying to avoid foreclosure on their homes. One week later, it […]
Law360's Evan Weinberger reports here (behind paywall). The case will decide whether debt buyers that don't have debt collection as their principal purpose, because, as in Santander's case, the debt buying unit is part of a multipurpose financial institution, are covered by the FDCPA. If the debt buyer wins, will we see debt buyers join with […]
The New York Times reports: Low-income people and older Americans would find it more difficult to win lawsuits for injuries caused by medical malpractice or defective drugs or medical devices under a bill drafted by House Republicans as part of their plan to replace the Affordable Care Act. The bill would impose new limits on […]
Brian Melzer of Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management and Aaron Schroeder of the CFPB have written Loan Contracting in the Presence of Usury Limits: Evidence from Automobile Lending. Here is the abstract: We study the effects of interest rate ceilings on the market for automobile loans. We find that loan contracting and the organization of […]
by Jeff Sovern During the George W. Bush administration, then-Comptroller of the Currency John Dugan, a former bank lobbyist and lawyer, aggressively protected banks by claiming that state anti-predatory lending laws were preempted as to national banks (remember the predatory lending that contributed to the Great Recession?), among other things. So this is a position […]
James Gibson of Richmond has written Boilerplate's False Dichotomy, Georgetown Law Journal, Forthcoming. Here is the abstract: The argument against enforcing boilerplate contracts (i.e., contracts that no one reads) seems clear. Indeed, if this were a court case, we would say that the jury is in; the evidence against boilerplate is overwhelming. Yet the judge […]
This article by Abha Bharrarai reviews anecdotal evidence and data from Internet searches for flights to the U.S. indicating that, as a result of Trump's travel ban, far fewer people want to travel to the U.S. for tourism, conferences, and other temporary visits. The article suggests that this phenomenon could cause great economic harm to segments of […]