Consumer Law

Designed for a two- or three-hour course, Consumer Law focuses on special rules for consumer transactions that supplement — by way of disclosure or regulation of agreement and practices — the contract, property and tort rules that also apply to the transaction. However, the coverage of special consumer rules that pre-empt the otherwise applicable commercial law rules, such as the holder in due course doctrine, is left to the relevant commercial law course with only brief mention to assure the preemptive rules are not ignored.

Miller, Harrell and Morgan have divided the material into three parts: pre-transactional protections, focusing on improper inducements — ranging from misleading advertising through unsolicited access devices — disclosure and fair evaluation; initial transaction protections, such as charge regulation and unconscionability, unfairness and bad faith; and later transaction protections, involving matters in closed-end transactions such as billing errors, limitations on default, the enforcement of liens and abusive collection efforts, and bankruptcy.

Both federal and state laws are covered in this casebook. Discussion on the federal level includes the Consumer Credit Protection Act, Federal Trade Commission statutes and regulations, and RESPA. Focus at the state level primarily is through uniform acts such as the Consumer Credit Code and Consumer Sales Practices Act.