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No Harm, No Foul: Statutory Violations and Consumer Harm

"No harm, no foul" is a common saying. As it turns out, that saying is sometimes true in law. An important prerequisite for a lawsuit in federal court is that the plaintiff have standing to sue....more

New York Courts Appear Skeptical of Certain Fees in Sales-Based Financing Transactions

On February 11, 2025, the Supreme Court of New York, Nassau County, ordered a hearing on whether a financing contract between Square Funding LLC and Walsh Roofing Services of Tampa Bay, LLC, was a "merchant cash advance"...more

Vehicle Titles in the Age of the Internet

Unlike most items of personal property, a motor vehicle usually has a certificate of title. We all know that the point of a vehicle title is to show who owns the vehicle and who (if anyone) has a lien on it....more

Yellowstone Capital Settles Lawsuit with New York Attorney General

On January 16, 2025, Yellowstone Capital and other entities, along with Yellowstone officers Isaac Stern and Jeffrey Reece, settled claims by New York Attorney General Letitia James that Yellowstone and the other entities...more

Federal Trade Commission Sues Business Financing Company for Allegedly Misleading Consumers

On November 4, 2024, the Federal Trade Commission sued Seek Capital, LLC, and Roy Ferman, Seek's founder and CEO, for allegedly violating several federal laws, including Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act ("FTC...more

When Is a Sale Final? Not Always as Early as You'd Like It to Be

One of the first things I learned in my first-year contracts class in law school was the Uniform Commercial Code. Specifically, the class covered Article 2 of the UCC, which governs sales of goods, including motor vehicles. ...more

Bill Under Consideration in California Would Apply Collections Law to Commercial Financing Providers

California's Senate Bill 1286 is under consideration in the Legislature. The bill, if passed, would expand the scope of the Rosenthal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to cover the collection of certain commercial-purpose...more

New Kansas Law Will Require Disclosures for Commercial Financing Transactions

On April 12, 2024, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly signed SB 345, which establishes commercial financing disclosure requirements. The new law will take effect on July 1, 2024, and will apply to commercial financing transactions...more

Continuing Saga of CFPB 1071 Small Business Data Reporting Rule

On December 19, 2023, President Biden vetoed a Congressional resolution that would have nullified a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule requiring lenders to report demographic information about small business loan...more

New York Department of Financial Services Reminds Auto Finance Companies to Credit Consumers for Ancillary Product Refunds

If you cancel a service before your contract is up and you paid ahead of time, you probably expect a refund. For example, if you paid $600 for a year's worth of a service and cancelled nine months into the contract, you...more

California DFPI Issues Final Rules on Commercial Financing UDAAP and Annual APR Reporting

The California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation became the nation's first regulator with authority to police "abusive" acts and practices in commercial financing when it recently adopted final regulations to...more

Online Chat Features and California's Two-Party Consent Rule for Recording Conversations

If you've been on the Web lately (and we all have), you've probably seen a site with a chat feature. Consumers in several cases have attempted to use those chat features as a basis for liability under a California privacy...more

California Senator Introduces Bill to Make Commercial Brokers Fiduciaries of Borrowers

Last month, California Senator Steve Glazer introduced a bill that could fundamentally change commercial finance brokering in the state. Senate bill 869 would expand the licensing requirement for brokers of commercial loans...more

New Jersey Reaches Consent Order with Yellowstone Capital Regarding MCA Agreements

On December 27, 2022, New Jersey's Attorney General and Office of Consumer Protection and Yellowstone Capital, LLC and several other associate companies signed a consent order to resolve a lawsuit that alleged violations of...more

Time Is of the Essence: Hidden Time Limits in Statutory Requirements

If a law requires you to do something, it's a good idea to assume that you don't have an unlimited amount of time to do it—after all, an obligation without a time limit isn't really an obligation. A well-written law will...more

Utah Enacts Commercial Financing Disclosure Law

On March 24, Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed S.B. 183, the Commercial Financing Registration and Disclosure Act ("CFRDA"). This makes Utah the third state to adopt a commercial financing disclosure law, following California...more

How to Catch Disclosure Errors Through Numbers

A lot of lawyers are afraid of numbers, but I'm one of the strange ones who enjoys handling the mathematical aspects of financial services law. To a lawyer like me, the beauty of a credit or lease contract is that if you've...more

Business Law Today April Month-in-Brief Posts

Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation Asserts Action against Non-Maryland State Bank for Lending Without State License - On January 21, 2021, the Maryland Commissioner of Financial Regulation filed an...more

New Features in the CFPB Consumer Complaint Database

On July 17, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau added new features to its Consumer Complaint Database. The new "trends" features allow a user to view complaint data over time. While the database always allowed a user to...more

Regulation of Student Loan Servicers: What's Out There, and What's Coming

States around the country continue to consider and enact laws and regulations to regulate student loan servicers and provide protections to student loan borrowers. Several states and the District of Columbia currently have...more

Don't Assume What a Court Will Assume About Your Contract

It's often difficult to predict how a court will interpret text, whether the text is part of a statute, a regulation, or a contract. Sure, courts have tools to aid their interpretations, but how a court will apply those tools...more

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