In an unpublished Minnesota Court of Appeals decision, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed a complete victory for defendant/debt collector/law firm Messerli & Kramer P.A. in a case brought by the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis and a sister case by Lori Swanson, Minnesota’s Attorney General. Messerli & Kramer had sought and been awarded default […]

Since at least 2007, some in the the mortgage lending industry have been concerned that the federal Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (“HMDA”), which mandates data reporting regarding loan applications and loan terms, would be used by plaintiffs’ counsel as supposed evidence of racially biased mortgage lending decisions or mortgage lending terms. Yesterday, while not mentioning […]

The Sunday New York Times Op Ed page, urging federal legislation, praises Minnesota’s 2007 mortgage legislation while pointing out that it is limited to state-chartered banks (well, not really — it covers mortgage brokers and others as well). See, e.g., Minn. Stat. 58.13 (Standards of Conduct for Mortgage Originators and Servicers). Minnesota attorneys Prentiss Cox, […]

On Friday, March 13, the MSBA CLE program will present the 2009 Minnesota Business Torts Deskbook Seminar (including the fully searchable Deskbook on CD ROM). I will be presenting on my chapter, Credit and Collections, which focuses on the Truth-in-Lending Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Minnesota […]