Consumer Law Research

Among the 64 titles in the Brooklyn Law School Library’s most recent New Books List is Lee Peoples’ Consumer Law: A Legal Research Guide (Call #KF241.C64 P46 2012). Researchers of consumer law need to focus on several interrelated subject areas that are governed by both state and federal laws, including a complex array of administrative agencies and regulations. This legal research guide provides a pathway for researchers of consumer law. It begins by laying out a research strategy for tackling consumer law issues. A thorough introduction to secondary sources is included. The most important treatises, looseleafs, and practice resources for consumer law and the related fields of bankruptcy, sales, real estate, mortgages, and banking law are discussed. There is an overview of important federal statutes related to consumer law and a discussion of the administrative agencies charged with implementing and enforcing consumer law.

Peoples, Associate Professor of Law Library Science and Law Library Director, Oklahoma City University School of Law, also authored a 30 minute CALI lesson Consumer Law Research available in SARA, the BLS Library catalog. The lesson, a First Year Lesson Topic, introduces students to consumer law research as they assist a hypothetical client "Joe" who is the victim of a used car salesman's sleazy tactics. Students will develop strategies for researching consumer law issues on both state and federal levels. It covers the "major player" consumer law statutes and the agencies empowered by those statutes as well as consumer law treatises, looseleafs, and practitioner resources in print and online formats.