Posts tagged as:

Minnesota

Minnesota Needs Debt Buyer Regulation

March 1, 2010

Minnesota Representative Joe Mullery and Senator Ron Latz recently introduced a bill that would prevent debt buyers from filing a lawsuit without the ability to prove they have the right to collect a debt.
Why the need for the rule? Debt buyers and collectors file tens of thousands of lawsuits against Minnesota consumers every year, and [...]

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Sprint Owes $$$ to Minnesota Customers

January 11, 2010

Because of a recent settlement between the Minnesota Attorney General’s office and Sprint, customers who think they were misled by Sprint about their contract can apply to Sprint for refunds. Sprint warns, however, that merely applying for a refund does not ensure you will get one.

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Foreclosure Relief Law Project seeks to stop Minnesota foreclosures

July 31, 2009

Mortgage loan modifications are hard to come by, especially since banks are foreclosing before consumers have a chance to get a modification. In an effort to halt foreclosures in Minnesota so that consumers can get modifications, the Foreclosure Relief Law Project has filed a class action on behalf of homeowners, and asked the Minnesota U.S. [...]

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Kucinich right on arbitration, wrong on courts

July 30, 2009

Dennis Kucinich and his House Domestic Policy Subcommittee just released a report on arbitration abuse in the National Arbitration Forum (PDF). In the report, the subcommittee stated that “[c]onsumer arbitration lacks the safeguards that have been designed into our judicial system by our Constitution, by state and federal statutes, and by centuries of judicial decisions” [...]

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Midnight hour at the Capitol

May 15, 2009

A summary of legal legislation, with a focus on consumer bills. Midnight hour at the Capitol | Minnesota Lawyer

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Defaults in Minnesota in 2008 increase 39% over 2007

March 13, 2009

If the default numbers for Minnesota are any indication, debt collectors are falling all over themselves, suing everyone in sight. In 2007, a “mere” 36,000 defaults were filed. In 2008, that number jumped to just over 51,000.
Some were responsible for more of those lawsuits than others. Minnesota debt collection law firm Messerli & Kramer, for [...]

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Attorney fee provisions about to be eviscerated

March 10, 2009

I met with Paul Thissen last Sunday, and he assured me that after doing further research into the bill he sponsored, he changed his mind and withdrew the bill. It is dead.
Minnesota DFL’ers are inexplicably out to eviscerate Minnesota consumer protection laws. Representative Paul Thissen (DFL), Representative Dave Olin (DFL), and Senator Linda Scheid (DFL) [...]

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Who’s getting hurt? UM study crunches the numbers on Minneapolis foreclosures

February 22, 2009

Who’s getting hurt? UM study crunches the numbers on Minneapolis foreclosures | MinnPost

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A sympathetic feature on a debt collector—and the ACA oath

September 12, 2008

The Twin Cities Daily Planet recently did a feature article on Sharon Hemmeke and Michelle Wallace of Phoenix Management Systems, Inc., a collection agency near Loring Park in Minneapolis. The article is a sharp departure from the recent reporting on debt collectors, which tends to be negative.
Wallace says collecting debts “can be very rewarding. Sometimes [...]

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Homecomings Financial loses (part of) its motion to dismiss consumer fraud claims

June 2, 2008

In a class-action lawsuit against Homecomings Financial, consumers alleged that Homecomings would charge borrowers for unnecessary homeowner’s insurance, fail to process payments on time, forcing borrowers to pay “Speedpay” fees of up to $12.50. One plaintiff says Homecomings charged him with six property-inspection fees in a 10-day period, apparently because Homecomings wanted to make sure [...]

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Governor Tim Pawlenty loves the homeless so much he wants more of them

May 30, 2008

The Minnesota legislature put the Subprime Borrower Relief Act on Governor Pawlenty’s desk last week. The Act would have put Minnesota home foreclosures on hold for a year to give homeowners a chance to sell, refinance, or negotiate a workout plan with their lenders.
It was, in all respects, a reasonable and fair compromise that would [...]

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Minnesota legislature passes Subprime Borrower Relief Act

May 20, 2008

The Subprime Borrower Relief Act gives borrowers with subprime loans the right to defer a foreclosure sale of their residence for one year after the bill becomes law.

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The impact of the subprime mortgage squeeze across the U.S.

April 10, 2008

From the New York Times, a beautiful graph (seriously, look at that!) showing the impact of the subprime mortgage mess across the U.S.:

(Click for big.)
The Twin Cities is definitely one of the hardest-hit, but just look at Florida!
[via City Pages, The Blotter]

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Update: U.S. Senator Norm Coleman on the Financial Crimes Task Force

April 9, 2008

Maybe Senator Coleman reads this blog, maybe not. In either case, I just received a reply to my e-mail. While the Minnesota Financial Crimes Task Force is obviously a state organization, I wanted to alert my federal legislators to the newly-created void in mortgage fraud enforcement in case they wanted to address it at a [...]

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Update: Minnesota Senator Linda Berglin on the Financial Crimes Task Force

April 9, 2008

When I write about an issue I tag “consumer activism,” I usually try to start the activism myself. So when I reported that Minnesota’s Financial Crimes Task Force is shutting down its mortgage fraud investigations, I went and fired off an e-mail to my state and federal representatives.
Usually when I do this, the response is [...]

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New Minnesota consumer website: Consumer Rights Watch

January 25, 2008

Public interest lobbyist Ron Elwood and former Minnesota attorney general Mark Ireland recently started Consumer Rights Watch, a blog on consumer issues in Minnesota.
Other than a glaring omission in the links section, it looks like a great blog. Check it out.

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3,400 occupied homes in Minnesota have no heat this winter

December 13, 2007

CenterPoint energy estimates that about 5,200 homes are disconnected, and about 3,400 of those are occupied. That means that during the past three extremely cold weeks, 3,400 households have had no heat, or only what heat they can generate from space heaters (until Xcel shuts off their electricity, I would assume). CenterPoint says most were [...]

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