Two lawsuit lending firms have been ordered by Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman to pay more than $2.3 million to settle claims alleging they charged excessive interest rates, reports Legal Newsline. Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Harold Kim, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), made the following statement today about Indiana Governor… Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Lisa A. Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), made the following statement today applauding the Indiana legislature… Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Lisa A. Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), issued the following statement today about the Colorado State… Read More
Lisa A. Rickard, president of the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform (ILR), issued the following statement today applauding Governor Asa Hutchinson for signing into law a bill to rein in lawsuit lending abuses (SB 882). Read More
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The Coalition for Common Sense (CCS) and the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry (LABI) received the Outstanding Organization Award at the U.S. Chamber… Read More
Oklahoma becomes the first state to subject lawsuit lenders to state consumer lending laws. Subsequently, Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada, Tennessee, Vermont, and West Virginia place the consumer lawsuit lending industry under state usury or licensing laws or adopt other safeguards. Read More
The Honorable Thurbert E. Baker, the former attorney general of Georgia and a partner at McKenna Long & Aldridge, explains why lawsuit lending is a problem. This interview was conducted at the 12th Annual Legal Reform Summit on October 26, 2011. Read More
A case study from the Wall Street Journal:
State Attorneys General regularly hire private plaintiffs lawyers on a contingency-fee basis to prosecute cases. The trial bar returns the favor with campaign donations to state office holders. And despite the inherent conflicts of interest and questionable ethics of the practice, corporate defendants have rarely challenged such arrangements. Which is why a motion pending before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court is so remarkable -- and deserves more public attention....Under terms of the contingency-fee contract, Bailey Perrin receives up to 15% of any settlement or judgment. Even better for the lawyers, the state is barred from settling for nonmonetary relief "unless the settlement also provides reasonably for the compensation of [Bailey Perrin] by [Janssen] for the services provided by the law firm under this contract." Read More
Inclusion of the provision in the federal Omnibus Appropriations Act of 2009 authorizing state attorneys general to enforce the federal Truth-In-Lending Act with private civil lawsuits will create a patchwork quilt of conflicting authorities and interpretations of federal laws dealing with home loans and other types of consumer finance transactions. Read More