The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau recently announced new measures aimed at helping students make better decisions when borrowing money for higher education. The new disclosures and tools will be helpful, but on Consumer Law & Policy Blog, I wondered how they will help make education more affordable.

Kara McGuire, of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, quoted me on her blog last week, and published the article in the paper yesterday (see above).

For more on student loans, visit Caveat Emptor.

Each year at its annual Benefactors’ Pro Bono Picnic, the Volunteer Lawyers Network names a “Volunteer of the Year.” This year, they chose me!

I’m honored and humbled. VLN is an organization I care deeply about, and I’ve tried to do what I can to help it succeed, both as a member of the board and as a volunteer. In fact, I just filed my second pro bono bankruptcy as a VLN volunteer, and it was amazing to see the relief wash over my client when we finished filing her petition.

Pro bono work is an important part of my law practice, and I’m thrilled to be able to work with—and be a part of—such an important organization.

Every year, lawyers nominate their peers to the annual Super Lawyers list of outstanding attorneys. They also nominate up-and-coming attorneys to the list of Rising Stars.

This year, I made the 2011 Rising Star list!

The Minnesota District Judges Association is holding its annual retreat in Brainerd this week. Since debt collection and foreclosures big issues that judges deal with every day, they invited Sam, along with real estate attorney Dan Tyson, to talk about these consumer issues.

Sam was thrilled to get a chance to talk directly to judges about debt collection lawsuits, which added up to 70,000 lawsuits filed in 2009, according to the Star Tribune. Sam talked about how debt buyers and debt collection law firms serve tens—if not hundreds—of thousands of summonses in Minnesota every year, despite the inability (or perhaps unwillingness) to prove their claims. He also suggested several possible ways the courts could stem the flood of collection lawsuits.

In a year when debt collection abuses are finally on legislators’ radars, Sam hopes this will put the issue on judges’ radars, as well, and that we will soon see meaningful change in the industry.

The Star Tribune’s lead story yesterday discussed the massive debt buyer lawsuit industry, especially in Minnesota. A focus in the article was the dire consequences of debt buyer lawsuits for consumers, even when debt buyers screw up, compared with the lack of real accountability for debt buyers when their claims are bogus.

“When consumers make small mistakes, such as failing to answer a lawsuit, the full power of the courts comes down on them,” said Sam Glover, a consumer rights attorney in Minneapolis. “But when a debt buyer flouts the law, it rarely experiences any consequences and keeps collecting as if nothing happened.”

The best course of action is to answer a debt collection lawsuit right away. Or if the time to answer (21 days) has already passed, talk to a consumer rights attorney right away.

This week, Sam was elected to the board of directors of the Volunteer Lawyers Network. VLN helps people of limited means get help with their legal problems at no cost.

Sam has been involved with VLN for years. We generally have at least one VLN case or project at all times. Recently, Sam helped VLN build a forms-based clinic to help consumers sued by debt buyers deal with the initial steps of debt collection litigation. He recently completed a bankruptcy for a VLN client, and provides mentoring for other VLN lawyers on consumer rights matters.

Sam looks forward to contributing lessons learned developing an innovative private practice to VLN’s public service model.

Our client was the victim of identity theft on a Sears account, but debt buyer MRC Receivables Corporation hired Messerli & Kramer to sue our client, anyway. Our client explained to Messerli & Kramer that the card was not hers, but never served a formal answer.

As a result, in 2009, Messerli & Kramer, P.A. obtained a default judgment against our client for a debt she did not owe.

In February, our client came to us looking for help, and we moved to vacate the judgment. A few days before the court hearing, Messerli & Kramer offered to dismiss the case with prejudice, a great result for our client!

River City Financial, LLC, is a Minnesota debt buyer. The debt collection law firm of Messerli & Kramer, P.A., tried to start a lawsuit for River City Financial against our client back in 2001. But Messerli & Kramer never filed the lawsuit—at least not until 2007, six years later, when it finally asked for a default judgment. Two years after that, Messerli & Kramer started garnishing our client’s wages.

The problem was that Messerli & Kramer’s process server never served our client with the lawsuit.

Randall Ryder argued the motion in Hennepin County District Court, and the judge ruled from the bench that the judgment should be vacated and the lawsuit dismissed, with prejudice. It was an excellent—and just—result, and our client was understandably thrilled!

Over the weekend, personal finance columnist Kara McGuire wrote about the Credit CARD Act of 2009, which takes effect on February 22nd. Although there is much good in the bill, she cautioned consumers about some things not in the bill. She quoted Sam Glover in the article:

Minneapolis consumer attorney Sam Glover, who blogs at CaveatEmptorblog.com, wishes the act included interest rate caps. “I don’t understand why 30 or 60 percent interest isn’t enough and Congress isn’t willing to say it,” he said.

New credit rules are no reason to let guard down

Minnesota Lawyer and the Wisconsin Bar Journal featured an interview with Sam and his partner in Lawyerist Media, LLC, Aaron Street. Minnesota Lawyer’s Jane Pribek wrote

Of the many things that can make you a proud Midwesterner, one of them might be that it’s home to one of the nation’s leading law-related blogs, Lawyerist.

Local legal blog catching on with small-firm lawyers nationally | Minnesota Lawyer
Legal blog start-up soars to prominence | Wisconsin Bar Journal