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Feeling Vindicated

posted by Adam Levitin

My Consumer Finance students used to think I was wasting their time by spending a whole class session on usury laws and taking them into the nitty-gritty of their application (or non-application). I think usury is important conceptually (but for the Marquette decision and its fallout, our regulation of consumer credit would likely be very different), has a lot of neat statutory reading twists and turns, and it actually can matter for non-bank lenders.  Among other things I cover is the NY state usury statute, including its criminal provisions. Cyrus Vance's prosecution of payday lenders under the usury statute would seem to vindicate my choice of class materials. 

Comments

Mr. Levitin, you are so right! I have seen several lawyers in consumer bankruptcy cases overlook usury defenses that they could use in filing objection to proofs of claim or seeking damages under RICO or New York Banking law 6l or under New York usury [unfortunately with a shorter statute of limitation].

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