Consumer Financial Services

Sutherland has a wide-ranging consumer financial services litigation practice, with special emphasis on the defense of consumer class actions in state and federal courts.  During the past five years, our lawyers have defended such cases in Illinois, Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, West Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, New York, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Texas.

The defense of consumer financial services litigation requires not only mastery of the substantive law, with its interrelated, overlapping statutes and regulatory regimes, but also a command of current issues in subjects such as class certification, removal, arbitration and appealability. In addition to this experience, we bring to the defense a familiarity with the business context, which is often vital to identifying and minimizing vulnerabilities.

 Our areas of substantive concentration include:

  • Automobile lending and leasing 
  • Enforcement of consumer arbitration provisions
  • Insurance and ancillary products sold in connection with consumer loans
  • Fair lending, including ECOA
  • Truth-in-Lending compliance
  • State UDAP laws
  • Fair Debt Collection Practices Act
  • So-called "predatory" or subprime lending
  • Bankruptcy discharge and other class actions
  • State attorney general enforcement actions
  • Remedies under the UCC and state retail finance statutes

For more information, please contact Tom Byrne at 404.853.8026 or .