by Jon Sheldon
This year's NCLC Consumer Rights Litigation Conference is being held in Miami November 9-13. Here is the latest:
1. Over 660 people have already registered and the number is likely to exceed 700 by next week.
2. There is so much interest in this year's conference that room blocks have filled up at the Hyatt Regency (where the conference is being held), the Courtyard Marriott, and the Radisson Miami. NCLC has arranged a group rate with the Marriott Biscayne Bay Hotel & Marina (1-800-228-9290) and the Doubletree Grand Hotel Biscayne Bay (1-800-222-8733). In order to receive the negotiated group rate of $169 per night, individual attendees must ask for the group block by name: National Consumer Law Center. Both hotels are a short ride from the Hyatt Regency by Metromover, a free people-mover system that serves downtown Miami.
3. The Friday (Nov. 9) intensive on Mortgage Servicing is already sold out, but there is still space available for the all-day Friday intensives on Auto Sales and Financing Fraud and also Doing Well While Doing Good: Secrets to Running a Profitable Consumer Law Practice.
4. Also Friday at 11:30 AM the main conference starts with over 10 roundtables and other special sessions. The main conference gets into high gear Saturday and Sunday with over 30 sessions to choose from on those days. This year's advance registration shows strong interest in predatory lending, foreclosures, arbitration, debt collection, and trial practice sessions, with fair credit reporting and auto topics not far behind. But there are many other options too--everything from electronic payments to reverse mortgages to ethical issues in class action settlements.
5. Monday (Nov. 12) there is still space available for two well-received intensives: The Class Action Symposium and Beyond Bankruptcy Reform: Getting Mortgage Servicers on Track in Chapter 13, and Bankruptcy Reform Update.
6. We cannot list all the special meetings and events that are happening at the conference that weekend, but highlights are the NACA Media and Trial Advocacy Awards and the NACA annual meeting, the Carnival de Abogados, a special showing of MAXED OUT (pre-release of an amazing new movie on debt), and various special luncheons and receptions.
7. You can register in person at the conference registration table at the Hyatt Regency or go to http://www.consumerlaw.org. All registrants are required to sign a certification relating to their representation of consumer rather than business interests.