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Welcome to NACA.net

The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) is a nationwide organization of more than 1000 attorneys who represent and have represented hundreds of thousands of consumers victimized by fraudulent, abusive and predatory business practices. As an organization fully committed to promoting justice for consumers, NACA's members and their clients are actively engaged in promoting a fair and open marketplace that forcefully protects the rights of consumers, particularly those of modest means.

Today, unfortunately, the fundamental consumer protections that we have all come to depend upon are under attack. This can be seen in the watering down of federal regulations and the preemption of strong state consumer protection laws. It can be seen in the systematic attack on a consumer's right to access our nation's justice system, either cynically through "tort reform" or surreptitiously through the use of binding mandatory arbitration clauses in every conceivable consumer contract. Finally it can be seen in the ever growing presence of unscrupulous and deceptive business practices that our members and their clients bear witness to each and every day.

Together, consumers and advocates can and must work to promote an agenda that lays the groundwork for rebuilding a consumer marketplace that is based on our nation's fundamental sense of fairness, equity and honesty. To learn more about the problems faced by American consumers and how you can help and be helped, please explore our website to find an attorney and join our fight!

Recent Updates
10/31/2008
NACA and Consumer Groups Send Letter to HUD Regarding Critical Weaknesses of the Proposed RESPA Rule (Download File ) As a coalition of consumer and civil rights organizations, we commend HUD for its groundbreaking work on the summary GFE—a real and significant step forward for consumers. The RESPA Rule has not, to our knowledge, however, adequately addressed three critical issues that we hope HUD will address in its final rulemaking.
10/15/2008
Misplaced Blame (Download File ) New York Times October 15, 2008 Editorial Misplaced Blame In recent weeks, Republicans in Congress have been blaming a lot of things, besides themselves, for the subprime mortgage debacle. And many of these same Republicans have long wanted to abolish the Community Reinvestment Act, a landmark law that helped to rebuild some of the nation’s most desolate communities by requiring banks to lend, invest and open branches in low-income areas that had historically been written off. These two goals have converged in a new attempt to blame the law for the financial crisis. The act, passed in 1977, is one of the most successful community revitalization programs in the country’s history. According to a recent report by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, an advocacy group in Washington, the act has encouraged lenders to invest more than $4.5 trillion in minority and low-income areas. This money helped to remake devastated neighborhoods like the South Bronx, helping to finance new housing and businesses. It has helped provide essential services in such neighborhoods, including medical centers and housing for the elderly and disabled — projects that the private sector too often refused to back. But you can hardly pick up a newspaper or turn on the television these days without hearing critics argue that the act created the current mess we’re in by forcing banks to lend to people in poor areas who were bad credit risks. Representative Steve King of Iowa has introduced legislation that would repeal the act. The charges do not hold up. First, how could a 30-plus-year-old law be responsible for a crisis that has occurred only in recent years? Then there’s the fact that the regulatory guidance issued under the reinvestment act and other banking laws actually impose restraints on the riskiest kinds of subprime lending. In addition, subprime lending was not driven by banks, which are covered by the act. Rather, most subprime lending was driven by independent mortgage lending companies, which the act does not cover, and, to a lesser extent, by bank affiliates and subsidiaries that are not fully covered by the act. By some estimates, nonbank lenders and bank affiliates and subsidiaries may have originated 75 percent or more of the riskiest subprime loans. A study released this week by the Center for Community Capital at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill shows that people of similar financial profiles were three to five times more likely to default when they received high-priced subprime mortgages than when they got bank loans made under the Community Reinvestment Act. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company
10/14/2008
NACA Joins National Consumer Rights Groups in Statement Regarding Attacks on the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) (Download File ) Recent conversations pointing to the Community Reinvestment Act as the cause of the foreclosure crisis and credit market crisis are an attempt to deflect attention away from the real problem affecting our financial system. That problem is failed regulatory policy and oversight. Download the document to read the entire statement.
Recent Updates Public Campaigns
12/4/2008
E-Discovery Advocacy Clinic for Consumer Advocates
Sign up now for the December 4-7, 2008 session in Cleveland, OH

Award-Winning “Maxed Out” Now Available In Paperback!
(New York, NY) January 4, 2008 – “Maxed Out”,…
See NACA's Ethical Guidelines for Class Actions