by Jeff Sovern As we reported a couple weeks ago, the Supreme Court ruled in Henson v. Santander that debt buyers are not automatically debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. However, debt buyers which have debt collection as the principal purpose of their business should still qualify as debt collectors under the statute (the […]
Paige Marta Skiba and Jean Xiao of Vanderbilt have written Consumer Litigation Funding: Just Another Form of Payday Lending? 80 Law and Contemporary Problems (2017). Here is the abstract: This article provides a side-by-side comparison of payday lending and consumer litigation funding in order to aid policymakers. Funding has similarities with payday lending because they are […]
David Hilzenrath at the Project on Government Oversight reports here about what strikes me as a bunch of future disasters waiting to happen. An excerpt: When makers of medical devices learn that one of their products has malfunctioned in a way that could kill or seriously injure people, they are required to file a report with the […]
by Jeff Sovern Some congressional Republicans have said that the CFPB was asleep at the switch when it came to the Wells Fargo unauthorized account scandal, and that it just piggy-backed on the LA City Attorney, which was the first governmental office to bring a case against Wells for the accounts. But now the LA […]
The case is Reyes v. Lincoln Autmotive Financial Service, and it conflicts with decisions of the Third and Eleventh Circuits. The TCPA has come in for increasing attention lately, with a recent hearing in Congress discussing possible amendments to the statute. (HT: Gregory Gauthier)
Here, in the Consumer Finance Monitor. Alan also notes that the rule can be blocked by congressional invocation of the Congressional Review Act, litigation, or, if Cordray does indeed step down, by a new Trump-appointed director.
by Paul Alan Levy Ever since Eugene Volokh and I started writing last year about the phenomenon of “fake defamation litigation” — lawsuits filed to suppress online criticism while ensuring that the person whose speech is to be suppressed never has a chance to persuade the court not to issue an injunction — the greatest […]
by Jeff Sovern Our consumer law casebook strives to present a balanced approach, so I am always on the lookout for writings that present debt collectors favorably. In that regard, The Economist recently published In praise of America’s third-party debt collectors. Here's an excerpt: A provocative new paper by Julia Fonseca, of Princeton University, and Katherine Strair and Basit Zafar, […]
The headline reads Trump to Cordray: You’re Not Fired. It argues that the Treasury Report has made a strong case for firing the CFPB director.