John W. Van Alst

John W. Van Alst is a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and is the director of NCLC’s Working Cars for Working Families project. His focus includes deceptive practices law, automobile fraud, rural issues, warranty, and manufactured home issues.

John is a co-author of NCLC’s Automobile Fraud, Consumer Warranty Law, and Repossessions. He is also the lead author of the reports, Time to Stop Racing Cars: The Role of Race and Ethnicity in Buying and Using a Car, Auto Add-Ons Add Up: How Dealer Discretion Drives Excessive, Arbitrary, and Discriminatory Pricing, and Shifting into Gear: A Revised Guide to Creating or Improving a Car Ownership Program.

Prior to joining NCLC, John was an attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina. He was also the Chair of the North Carolina Consumer Law Task Force, and he spent one year as a visiting clinical supervisor at the University of North Carolina School of Law’s Civil Clinical Program supervising law students representing low-income clients.

Education:

J.D. University of North Carolina School of Law

B.A. East Carolina University

Jeremiah Battle, Jr.

Jeremiah Battle is a senior attorney at the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) specializing in consumer credit and energy issues.

Jeremiah is the author of NCLC’s Credit Discrimination and a contributor to several NCLC treatises, including Consumer Credit Regulation, Collection Actions, Repossessions, and Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices.

Previously, he was a staff attorney with Essex Newark and Northeast New Jersey Legal Services, where he focused on bankruptcy, consumer fraud, predatory mortgage lending, and public benefits cases, and was a recipient of the Legal Services of New Jersey James B. Larsen outstanding attorney award for dedicated and skillful representation of low-income clients. He was also a managing attorney with New Jersey Protection and Advocacy, Inc. (now Disability Rights New Jersey), where he concentrated on disability rights issues.

Education:

J.D. Rutgers–Newark School of Law

B.A. Rutgers University, with high honors