Private Organization Interpretation

This is a November 14, 2014, letter from a number of consumer groups and law firms representing consumers to the Director of FHFA concerning the fact that that Fannie Mae’s and Freddie Mac’s then current guidelines regarding the treatment of credit reporting disputes impinges on the rights of consumers under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA). More importantly, lenders who reject applicants because of disputed tradelines because they are unwilling to manually underwrite the loan appear to be directly violating the ECOA.

This is a Money Advisory 2012 magazine article discussing some retailers’ attempts to limit consumer rights under the Fair Credit Billing Act when consumers dispute with their credit card issuer charges assessed by the retailer.  For example, retailers may require the consumer to dispute the charge initially or even only with the retailer, and not seek a chargeback from the card issuer.

This is a letter to consumer's counsel indicating the AAA will not arbitrate a claim the consumer brought before the AAA because in a past AAA arbitration the automobile dealership defendant refused either to pay the filing fees or alter its arbitration requirement to meet AAA consumer protocols. In addition, the dealer did not register its arbitration clause with the AAA. With AAA arbitration not available, the consumer may have grounds to bring the action in court instead. Presumably, the result would be the same if any other consumer files an arbitration against this dealer.

On November 12, 1999, the Office of Legal Affairs issued an external opinion interpreting the Legal Service Corporation’s (LSC) regulation on attorneys’ fees, 45 CFR Part 1642. The issue was whether an LSC grant recipient may, consistent with the requirements of Part 1642, transfer time records relating to a former client’s case to the former client’s new private counsel, when the new counsel is seeking to recover attorneys’ fees on the client’s behalf.

Letter responding to request fo an Office of the General Counsel interpretation of the Legal Services Corporation’s (LSC or Corporation) regulation on attorneys’ fees, 45 C.F.R. Part 1642.