One day you will need or thank the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), just as we need or thank the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
If you want to know more about the CFPB, one of the blogs listed at the 6th Annual ABA Blawg 100 site is the CFPB Monitor. It tracks the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
You can also visit the official CFPB website and read CFPB’s official blog.
Many roads lead to the Do Not Call List and their Violations and Complaints page.
In Oregon, there’s a short summary of the Do Not Call law, at the Department of Justice Consumer Protection website and lots of other great consumer information.
Yahoo highlights a terrific Monster dot com consumer alert article:
Visit Oregon’s One Stop Business Portal, whether you are thinking about starting a business in Oregon, need to research permits and licenses, want to pay your taxes, need financing for your business, or need to find answers to dozens of other questions business owners have (except, perhaps, what happened to the missing “e” in “xpress”).
Consumers have business websites, too:
beSpacific alerted us to this beta-test Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) database:
You can file all sorts of consumer financial services complaints at their “Submit a complaint” website.
A 3 Geeks and a Blog July 13 (Turning Internet Nasty Into Money for a Cause) started me thinking, perhaps in the slipstream of others, about people who use websites and blogs intentionally or unintentionally to redress consumer (and other) injuries and grievances or to shame those “who done them wrong,” rather than hiring a lawyer – or to help build public support for their own pro se / self-represented / small claims lawsuit.
I’m not talking about The Complainers, those people who would rather have their grievances (and their whining) than a solution to a problem. I’m thinking instead about people who really do try to solve problems creatively with deliberation, conversation, research and hard work. (See the example in the 3 Geeks post, that of Anita Sarkeesian, and Heather Peters, the California Small Claims Court litigant)
Journalists, newspapers, and other days-of-yore print media have always use Publication to educate and persuade, but now, almost anyone can broadcast. Consider, for example, that 2009 U.S. Supreme Court case (Safford Unified School District v. Redding) about the strip search of a high school girl by school officials. After oral argument the print and the online chatter was brutal, shaming, criticizing, and outright laughing at the utter and apparent cluelessness of many of the Justice’s questions and assumptions about Real High School Life (specifically for young women). I wonder if that onslaught of “are you kidding me?!!” types of broadcast reaction forced the Justices to step back a little to rethink their previously fixed opinions, if only to retain a little professional and maybe even personal credibility, dignity, and respect. (Their own children and grandchildren are surely not banned from telling them A Thing or Two About Youf Today.)
Lawyers and librarians who buy legal books and databases rely on the stupendous “Legal Information Buyer’s Guide & Reference Manual” and we welcome the latest 2012 edition.
You can read more about this peerless buyers’ guide and legal reference tool at the New England Law Press website.
Oregonian story: “Beaverton police, ODOT officials crack down on illegal movers during sting,” April 26, 2012, by Rebecca Woolington.
Excerpt: “Beaverton police and Oregon Department of Transportation officials cracked down on illegal movers during a sting Wednesday involving five unlicensed movers.
Each of the movers was cited and accused of not complying with consumer protection and safety laws, said Officer Mike Rowe, a Beaverton police spokesman. … Moving is a regulated industry in Oregon, according to ODOT. To offer moving services for money, people need to be approved by the state. That includes having a business license, undergoing a criminal background check, completing a household goods carrier license application through ODOT, and possessing liability and property damage insurance, among other things.
Oregon Legal Research Blog