Consumer Law & Policy Blog

Debt Collection Scenarios and Rules Dramatized

Here.  HT to Dee Pridgen.

Why the CFPB Needs the Same Budgetary Authority as Other Bank Regulators

by Jeff Sovern

Ed Mierzwinski and NASDAQ/Dow Jones Newswires have reported that opponents of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have attached riders to appropriations bills to subject CFPB funding to the congressional appropriations process rather than the current system under which the Bureau gets funding outside that process, as is true of other bank regulators like the OCC.  To see why this matters, you have only to read New York Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson's book (written with Joshua Rosner), Reckless Endangerment (2011).  The authors explain, at pages 28-29, that when Congress created the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO) to regulate Fannie and Freddie in 1992, Fannie lobbied to have OFHEO subject to annual appropriations by Congress.  The authors state:

The overseer would have to beg for money to operate. . . . [That, together with other constraints,] allowed Fannie to shift the power of oversight to congressional subcommittees, run by members who could be easily swayed by the company's lobbying efforts and campaign contributions.  Once his company's oversight was in the hands of Congress, [Fannie chief executive James A.] Johnson knew that he could work behind the scenes to derail any restrictions on the company's activities that OFHEO might suggest.

We all know how that ended.  OFHEO's efforts to regulate Fannie Fannie and its fellow enterprise Freddie failed miserably.  Fannie and Freddie needed a bailout of something like $160 billion, and OFHEO has since been replaced by a new regulator.  So this is really an attempt to enable financial institutions to regulate their regulator, the CFPB, and prevent effective consumer protection.

 

New Practice Tools from NCLC

This update lists important bankruptcy & mortgage developments, and new reports, webinars, and trainings:

1. ATTENTION BANKRUPTCY and MORTGAGE ATTORNEYS--New Rules and Official Forms effective Dec. 1 respond to mortgage claim documentation problems. Go to http://www.nclc.org/form10 for a special 6 page NCLC REPORTS analyzing the changes and reprinting sample pleadings under the new bankruptcy rules.

2. NCLC’s Bankruptcy Mortgage Project website, www.bankruptcymortgageproject.org organizes and provides access to more than 500 local rules, forms, general orders, and court opinions on mortgage issues in consumer bankruptcy cases across the U.S.

3.NCLC REPORTS September/October issues:

Bankruptcy & Foreclosures Edition: state sup. ct. upholds foreclosure mediation and standing requirements; FAQs on mortgage "strip off"

Consumer Credit & Usury Edition: consumer attorneys and housing counselors not SAFE Act loan originators; tolling TILA's one year limitations period

Debt Collection& Repo Edition: FDCPA violation for false threats to report obsolete debts; credit card collection as FCBA violation; state repo laws apply to national banks; debt buyer suits stalled

Deceptive Practices & Warranties Edition: UDAP challenges to loan modification abuses; new FTC rule on mortgage advertising .

4. NCLC Webinar Series continues: Dec.7 at 2PM: " GUARDIAN ACCOUNTABILITY AND MONITORING: WHERE DO WE STAND?”. Contact jhiemenz@nclc.org for this and future webinars. Go to http://www.nclc.org/conferences-training/webinars.html for FREE downloads of over 50 past webinars.

5. SAVE THE DATE: Fair Debt Collection Practices Training Conference is in New Orleans, Feb. 23-24, 2012. Registration will open mid-December at: www.nclc.org/conferences-training/fair-debt-collection-practices-conference.html Get up to speed on your first debt collection abuse cases and proceed to more in-depth sessions on developing fair debt collection cases and a fair debt collection law practice. Faculty includes the top Fair Debt Collections Lawyers from across the country. CLE credit.

Compilation of Consumer Advocate Blogs

Here.

Important new anti-SLAPP ruling from New Orleans

by Paul Alan Levy

Judge Carl Barbier has issued a significant decision construing and applying the Lousiana anti-SLAPP statute.  The ruling arose from a troubling lawsuit brought by Lousiana’s Capital Assistance Center against an author who, while a Harvard Law student, interned at the Center; based on information she had previously published in a pair of essays, the suit alleges that she was likely to publish confidential information about one of the plaintiff’s clients that she obtained during an internship in a forthcoming novel.

Although the court ultimately decided that the plaintiff’s claim would not be dismissed, the most significant part of the opinion is a lengthy discussion of plaintiff’s contention that the anti-SLAPP statute does not apply in federal court.  I suppose I am prejudiced because it comes out the right way on the Erie question, but I found Judge Barbier’s decision of the policy questions implicated by the state statute and by the Erie issue, and his comparison between federal court procedures for summary disposition and the substantive purposes of the anti-SLAPP statute, to be thoughtful as well as compelling.  Worth a read.

Senate Could Vote on Cordray Next Week

So reports the WSJ. An excerpt :"'Bringing up his nomination for a vote before the end of the year is a priority for us,' said a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.)."