Some shady folks look at disasters and see dollar signs. Oregon DOJ has some useful information to help you keep from becoming a victim to those folks. You can download them below.
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Coder-turned-Attorney Robb Shector has further enhanced his first big online laws project from his law school days, the excellent online Oregon statutes depository (Oregonlaws.org). Robb has made that even more valuable by coming up with a way to provide a very smooth integration with the statutes from his version of the online Oregon Administrative Rules (OARs). Robb's OARs database now provides hotlinks to statutes so you can easily go check the statutes as you are researching the rules and then easily return to the rules.
You can see Robb's administrative rules set here: https://oregon.public.law/rules (photo below of the entry page). Having worked with others (I don't have the technical chops to do the coding myself) to bring readable OARs to Oregonians for a long time (see OregonAdminRules.org tab at top of page), I know Robb put in an awful lot of work. Hats off to Robb for bringing this home at last. It's pathetic that the State of Oregon publishes statutes and rules in such a poorly designed format (all left-justified text that is all but impossible to use without extensive manual reformatting). It would require little or nothing by the state to give Oregonians these important publications in a clear, always-up-to-date, easy to use form, as Robb has shown. REMEMBER: Federal law prevents businesses from sticking fine print into their contracts that prohibits you from writing or posting a negative review of the business! (The Consumer Review Fairness Act (“CRFA”) became law in March 2017.)
The Federal Trade Commission recently slapped three companies who had form contracts that said the consumers could not post negative reviews about the products or services from the businesses. Worse, these form contract also had confidentiality clauses -- those said that the consumers would PAY money damages to the businesses if the consumers disclosed information they got while using the products or services was confidential. Bankruptcy Exemption Limits (what you can keep) Amounts Going Up
Mick Mulvaney is the Darth Vader of the Trump Administration when it comes to hating real people and worshiping at the feet of his Emperors, the corporate masters who own him. Mulvaney hates the very idea of a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that a bought and sold Congress cannot neuter because it is funded independently like the Federal Reserve and EVERY OTHER financial agency. Mulvaney wants to make CFPB like the FCC and FTC and all the other agencies that have been totally neutered and rendered impotent by a Congress in hock to campaign contributors who crack the whip and watch their minions jump. A consumer attorney in Ohio isn't having any of this, and has put the entire CFPB consumer complaints database online outside the CFPB's control, and promises to keep it updated -- so even as Mulvaney tries to hide the complaints, this new database will ensure that real people will be able to access it. DannLaw launches "Scoundrels, Scams and Cheats" database to ensure public access to CFPB consumer complaint reports ![]() The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) offers consumers a great free tool to download and review before shopping for a motor vehicle. You can access the app on your desktop or laptop by going to www.USLemonLawLawyers.com. Or take it with you to the dealer's by downloading it from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store (Android). ![]() From The Oregonian: The settlement, announced in February, sets aside $1.5 billion for direct payments to about 2 million borrowers nationwide whose homes were foreclosed between 2008 and 2011 by one of five participating mortgage servicers: Ally/GMAC, Bank of America, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo. But nearly 10,000 Oregon residents haven't filed claims since notices were sent out in September. The deadline for claims is Jan. 18. In Oregon, payments would be at least $840, though it depends on the number of claims. Claims can be filed by returning the forms mailed in September, or at nationalmortgagesettlement.com. ![]() The Oregon Court of Appeals has ruled that the hydra known as MERS -- the monstrous placeholding dummy with a million phony vice-presidents, which the mortgage servicing industry created to attempt to evade the requirement (and the fees) that all transfers of interests in mortgages be recorded -- cannot use the streamlined, fast-track nonjudicial foreclosure process in Oregon! Niday v. GMAC Mortgage, LLC et al, "[T]he import of our holding is this: A beneficiary that uses MERS to avoid publicly recording assignments of a trust deed cannot avail itself of a nonjudicial foreclosure process that requires that very thing-- publicly recorded assignments." The nonjudicial foreclosure process was created in the old days when lenders held onto their mortgage loans, which were actually underwritten thoughtfully. Fast forward to the slice-and-dice fast-money 1990s-2000s, when the banksters and money men started financializing everything and you suddenly had a tool that was being used against homeowners in ways never intended, by an entity never imagined by the law, a weird hybrid creature that pretended to be both the beneficiary of the loan (when useful to MERS) and not the beneficiary (again, when useful to MERS). Hurrah for the Oregon Court of Appeals. BULLSEYE! Seems likely the MERS scammers will appeal but, for now, a true shining example of Oregon flying with her own wings and reaching the right conclusion despite a number of other states having missed the mark widely on this issue. ![]() Filing Consumer Complaints for Mortgage Problems, Auto Fraud and More Keep this list handy so you’ll know who to turn to when it comes time to register a complaint related to a shoddy consumer product or practice. Note that some agencies offer direct assistance to resolve complaints while others track information for use by law enforcement officials. Also, for all online complaints registered with the CFPB, the bureau will forward your client’s complaint to the company, issue a tracking number, and keep you or you updated regarding the status. Auto Loans or Other Consumer Loan Complaints (other than mortgage and student loan problems) Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Auto Dealer Complaints FTC Complaint Assistant Bank Account or Bank-Related Service Complaints Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Credit Card Complaints Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Mortgage Complaints
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Other Consumer Fraud & Scams
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