CFPB Chair’s speech to National Association of Attorneys General

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Chairman Richard Cordray spoke yesterday at a meeting of the National Association of Attorneys General. His remarks are posted here. Chairman Cordray discussed CFPB's efforts to address deceptive marketing, debt traps, "dead ends" (a discussion of credit scores and debt collection), and discrimination.

When should finanical institutions be bailed out?

Law professors Anthony Casey and Eric Posner attempt to answer that question in A Framework for Bailout Regulation. Here is the abstract: During the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009, the government bailed out numerous corporations, including banks, investment banks, and automobile manufacturers. While the bailouts helped end the financial crisis, they […]

Joint Enforcement Action: Maryland Attorney General and CFPB Act On Illegal Mortgage Kickbacks

By guest blogger Peter A. Holland In a time of limited resources, perhaps a new model is emerging of joint CFPB/State Attorney General enforcement actions.  The recent joint action by the Bureau and Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh provides a nice case study. Recently, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau […]

Study of Public Participation in Rulemaking and Plain Language

Cynthia R. Farina, Mary Newhart, and Cheryl L. Blake, all of Cornell, have written The Problem with Words: Plain Language and Public Participation in Rulemaking, George Washington Law Review (2015 Forthcoming). Here's the abstract: The connection between more understandable rulemaking materials and broader, better public participation seems obvious, Yet the series of Presidential and statutory […]

Does Pre-Submission Media Coverage Increase the Odds of a Good Article Placement?

by Jeff Sovern As law students, law professors, and lawyers know, most law reviews are edited by law students, which means that law students select the articles that appear in their journals.  The prime submission season is just underway, and so newly-minted law review editors—most in their second year of law school—are choosing among the […]

New York Decision Denying Discovery of Doe Critics Casts Broad Doubts on Libel Suits over Consumer Reviews

by Paul Alan Levy The Appellate Division in New York has today affirmed the denial of a pre-litigation petition brought by Woodbridge Structured Funding seeking to compel Opinion Corp. to provide identifying information about the authors of two critical consumer reviews on its Pissed Consumer site. 

Should Macao Music Group Be Able to Identify Twitter Users Criticizing Its CEO?

We recently filed an amicus brief about the standards for subpoenas identifying anonymous Internet users accused of defamatory or otherwise wrongful communications in a surprising venue – the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.  The underlying case was filed in the Western District of Washington by Macao Music Group, an offshore […]

ABA Consumer Protection Conference Focuses on Big Data, Internet of Things and Ad Substantiation Standards

By Dee Pridgen The ABA Consumer Protection Conference held February 12 on the campus of the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., focused on the work of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as the work of advertising self-regulatory bodies, especially in the areas of big data and the “Internet of Things.”  FTC Chair […]