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The short answer is that the outcome of the Supreme Court hearing (whose oral argument is scheduled for May 15 at 10 am) is of immense importance to all stakeholders in the consumer financial services industry. We will explain why that is the case.

The Fourteenth Amendment states:  “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”… Continue Reading

It is all but certain that Rep. French Hill, R-Ark., will chair the House Financial Services Committee in the next Congress. Hill was selected on December 12 by the House Republican steering committee, although his selection still must be approved by House Republicans in the next Congress. That approval is considered to be pro forma.… Continue Reading

Unsigned Terms and Conditions found in a preprinted car rental jacket are part of the contract between the parties under Florida, Arizona and Colorado law because they were properly incorporated by reference into the signed rental receipt, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday.

The case, Calderone v. Sixt Rent a Car, stems from allegations that Sixt did not follow the Terms and Conditions in its rental jacket when charging renters for auto repairs. … Continue Reading

I am pleased to report that Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Services Group was once again ranked nationally by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in all three national consumer finance categories: Compliance, Enforcement and Investigations, and Litigation.  Chambers has consistently ranked our Consumer Financial Services Group ever since it began ranking firms in the U.S. … Continue Reading

On May 2, 2024, the Committee on Judicial Review of the Administrative Conference of the United States (“ACUS”), an independent federal agency tasked with improving government operations, approved a recommendation that judicial review of agency rulemaking be directed to federal appellate courts and that lawsuits challenging agency rules in district courts should be subject to district-wide assignment to avoid forum shopping. … Continue Reading

CFPB Director Rohit Chopra has released a statement about the proposal issued by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Federal Housing Finance Agency to address incentive-based compensation arrangements.  The rulemaking is required by Section 956 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which directed the FDIC, OCC, FHA, as well as the Federal Reserve Board, National Credit Union Administration, and U.S.… Continue Reading

Our special guest is Andrea Boyack, Professor, University of Missouri School of Law.  We first discuss the principles that underlie our current system of consumer contracts and the system’s role in promoting transactional efficiency and other objectives.  Prof. Boyack then provides her views on why the application of traditional contract law to the modern consumer contract context is not in the best interests of consumers and offers a different approach to consumer contracts in which a consumers can shape the terms of their contracts. … Continue Reading

On September 7, 2023, at the ABA Business Law Section Fall Meeting in Chicago, Alan Kaplinsky, Ballard Spahr Senior Counsel in the firm’s Consumer Financial Services Group, will moderate a program, “U.S. Supreme Court to Revisit Chevron Deference: What the SCOTUS Decision Could Mean for CFPB, FTC, and Federal Banking Agency Regulations.” … Continue Reading

Congratulations to Professor Jeff Sovern who was recently named the inaugural Michael Millemann Professor of Consumer Protection Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law.  Professor Sovern joins Maryland Carey Law after 40 years on the faculty of St. John’s University School of Law where he wrote about and taught consumer protection law. … Continue Reading