Put A Ring On It

What is the best way to reduce the amount of companies offering Consumer Legal Funding?

Simple: Put a RATE on it!

In Beyonce’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on it),” the lyrics read: “If you like it then you shoulda put a ring on it.” The US Chamber and Insurance Industry are singing a similar tune when it comes to Consumer Legal Funding. However in their song, the lyrics read: “Put a RATE on it.”

They want to put a rate on Consumer Legal Funding because they want the product to disappear from the marketplace, plain and simple.

If you look at the recent passage of an 18% rate cap in West Virginia, which passed earlier this year, the bill has eliminated the Consumer Legal Funding industry from the state. According to the West Virginia Secretary of States website, there are ZERO Consumer Legal Funders registered to operate in the state.

This is a replication of what happened in Arkansas when the state passed a 17% rate cap in 2015. There has been ZERO business there since.

Now let’s compare this to Oklahoma which passed a strong regulatory bill in 2013 that did not include a rate cap. Today, there are 20 companies offering the product in the state. But here is a real interesting fact about Oklahoma: Of the 20 companies offering the Consumer Legal Funding, a full 25% are Oklahoma-based. Check out Oklahoma’s own website.

These are companies paying local taxes, hiring local employees, and growing the local economy. Isn’t that what the US Chamber of Commerce claims it tries to promote? Entrepreneurship, taking a risk and grabbing the American Dream. In fact, the motto of the US Chamber is “The Spirit of Enterprise.” CEO Tom J. Donohue talked about that very spirit in a speech back in 2017 at the AEI’s Summer Honors Program.

Maybe the US Chamber should piggyback off another Beyonce song, “Lemonade,” where she sings “You can taste the dishonesty, it’s all over your breath, as you pass it off so cavalier.”

So which is it? Is the US Chamber for growing the US and local economies or are they for limiting and reducing them?

Just want to know which song to queue up…