Consumer Law 101

Consumer law is a fascinating area that can be hugely significant to a consumer. As the name would suggest, it focuses on the legal obligations and rights of people who purchase consumer goods or services. While it is sometimes viewed as a niche area , it impacts upon the lives of many people who are unaware of their legal rights. An in-depth knowledge of consumer rights and related topics is essential if you are to act on behalf of consumers.
There are multiple pieces of legislation in place that protect consumers if they have been sold faulty goods or substandard services. A general understanding of this legislation will always be likely to prove beneficial to you. If you do not have the missing knowledge then you cannot act on behalf of your client to the best of your abilities.
It can be a huge advantage to be able to assist a client who is having consumer problem. Whether it is issues with a faulty good, or problems with a service that your client has purchased, being able to act on their behalf, arguing their case, can be hugely significant.

Best Consumer Law Books

The Consumer Handbook to Better Banking by Ellen Harnick and Ellen Kossek
When financial institutions mishandle your accounts, you have a consumer movement at your side. It is a seminal book that will easily empower the average American in a complicated area of law.
Consumer Law in a Nutshell by Robert H. Jerry II and Robert L. Felix
An excellent resource for general practitioners with a strong legal background.
Just Good Business: The Emerging Legal Primer on Managing Your Company’s Public Reputation and the Legal Risks That Can Erode It by Miles Palmer
A very easy read of a wide array of issues all businesses, and their counsel, should know.
The Credit Repair Kit by Earl Williams
An essential resource for consumers and their attorneys. The author is an attorney who has enormous experience in consumer litigation, including credit reporting. The book is very practical, and it puts difficult legal issues into plain language that consumers can understand.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Primer by John S. Mattson
A terrific primer on the FDCPA. This book, written by plaintiffs’ counsel, is a how-to guide for the consumer lawyer.
Mullins’ Encyclopedia of Consumer Credit and Sales Law by Billy Mullins
This book provides unprecedented coverage of consumer laws, and is a major research tool. Written by individual experts of each state, there is not a more comprehensive work on the subject. Please note, however, that there has been some criticism of the book’s accuracy as to several states. Nonetheless, if you are federal court bound, or seeking to create national remedies for consumer problems, you might not want to miss this book.

Trends in Consumer Law Books

As with any evolving field, consumer law literature is regularly responding to developments in the landscape. Currently, we are seeing a growing focus on law and technology. A prime example of this trend is the literature on privacy law, which is expanding exponentially. Along with the concept of a right to privacy, we are also seeing a rise in the discussion of cyber security, artificial intelligence and their intersection with the law. The issue of privacy itself—who owns it and how public vs. private data is governed—is being explored more than ever before, particularly in light of mass data gathering by major tech companies.
A related trend is the literature addressing information asymmetry for consumers. The rapid development of new technologies has raised questions about how informed consumers can remain in this ever-changing landscape, where the stakes for data breaches—both personally and financially—can be dire. Authors have attempted to find ways to level the playing field for consumers, proposing potential laws and regulations governing tech companies to provide relevant information to consumers and/or the government to ensure this information is accessible and easily digestible. Consumer protection is also a big part of this discussion, as many authors are exploring ways that consumers can be held harmless in the event of a data security breach.
Additionally, we are seeing a revival of tort literature that examines the intersection of tort and consumer law. Although these areas are often perceived as separate, over time they have become increasingly intertwined, giving rise to a sibling literature of sorts as scholars examine the interplay between these fields.

Consumer Law Books Online

One of the most exciting developments in legal education in the past decade has been the emergence of high-quality online courses, many of them offered for free. Though many of them are geared toward helping people pass legal exams, there are a number of resources that can help consumers learn about consumer law for their own protection.
Regardless of whether your consumer law practice involves litigation or transactional work, you’ll probably find a ton of videos on YouTube concerning consumer law. There are channels that specialize in consumer law-related issues and have monthly viewership in the millions.
So even if you’re not going to be the next star on YouTube, it’s a great place to start your consumer law education. Some of the larger YouTube channels for consumer law include: Consumer Watchdog (California), Hendon Law Firm (Atlanta), Law Offices of Howard G. Smith (Philadelphia area), and Ask The Lawyer (Toronto). Check your local bars to see if any firms do their own legal education videos.
There are also dozens of free e-books (as well as some purchasable ones) and online resources for consumer law.
Website for the National Consumer Law Center has a large searchable database of consumer law resources. Many of these are pricey texts that can be found at law libraries, but you can also find some valuable free resources produced by the organization.
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has a number of valuable guides and tools on a raft of legal issues affecting consumers , ranging from mortgages to credit reports to buying a new car.
eLawTalk offers a free introductory course in lemons. (Separately, the contract lawyers at eLawTalk all look like they’re so old that they must have been frozen from the mid-1980s until their release this year from cryogenic stasis to talk about lemons.) eLawTalk also offers paid courses on UCC Articles 2 and 9 and why personal injury lawyers should care about debt collection. The course on legal ethics and e-mails is free, and Law360 offers a discount code that will get you 60% off of all courses on the site . (Look for the top posts on the right side of the page.)
Another good resource is the student-authored Consumer Price Index Inflation data available through the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. It’s a simple interactive graph that allows you to choose various categories of items purchased and compare their prices today with the prices of years past. The data range back to 1976.
The Federal Trade Commission is another good government resource for consumers. Besides learning directly about your rights as a consumer, you can also sign up to receive tips and notifications about cases on topics that interest you. You even have a list of options from which to choose, including "auto industry," "identity theft," and "online privacy."

Consumer Law Book Selection Tips

As you ponder the many ways in which consumer law books can benefit you, it’s also a good time to think about how to choose the right book for your situation. Even considering just the four above categories, there are numerous choices for a given need or interest in consumer law. As an example, let’s say "consumer law" is a totally new topic for you and you’re looking to remedy that. One could certainly make the case for any of the books mentioned so far as a good primer on consumer law, but they are not all the same and there are differences that matter. The National Consumer Law Center’s various consumer law treatises reflect cutting legal doctrine that is widely accepted in the courts, and provide sure footing for a new practitioner or student. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Enforcement Manual provides yet another perspective, from a government agency at work. And any one of these books could be read by a member of the general public who suddenly finds themselves interested or involved in litigation that concerns them and works to their benefit long after the fact. They qualify as good reference books, or simply good reads.

Consumer Law Books in the Future

With the way consumer technology is advancing, in the near future there may no longer be a need for traditional, hard copy law books. There are already consumer apps available that help consumers understand the laws applicable to them. For instance, there’s an app for your smart phone that allows you to scan the bar code on any consumer product and it will pop up the applicable consumer laws that apply to that product in your state.
Different forms of online instructions and resources are becoming available to give consumers the information they need . In addition to helpful apps available for download and purchase, businesses and solo practitioners continue to develop and grow their websites. Online resources via various companies may be used to obtain more accurate legal instructions and information than ever before.
However, with all these incredible advances, there will still be a need in the future for lawyers and the written law. App and website designers can never replace the learned expertise of a highly skilled professional, nor can they educate consumers about all their options.