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Welcome to BLC Associates. We provide expert witness services for both plaintiffs and defendants dealing with vehicle retail and wholesale sales, retail vehicle leasing, vehicle installment sales and related vehicle products and services including insurance coverages. We also provide consulting services to dealers and finance companies on vehicle leasing (and financing) including the implementation of Lease-Here Pay-Here programs.

With experience working with over $2 billion of claimed losses, firm principal Randall McCathren is well-qualified to assess industry custom and practice and interpret related regulatory requirements (e.g., Reg. Z and Reg. M) from both sides of a case. Mr. McCathren is a national authority on retail vehicle leasing and financing and has both a quantitative background (B.S. in Engineering and Applied Science, magna cum laude, Yale University) and legal background (J.D., University of California, Berkeley (Boalt Hall), Associate Editor, California Law Review) Read More Firm principal Ronald Loshin is an economist and widely recognized national authority in consumer vehicle leasing and automobile finance. Read More

If you need assistance resolving issues that arise in the new and used vehicle dealership sales, Read More finance company installment sales or vehicle leasing, contact BLC Associates. Read More

Litigation Consulting
If you are representing vehicle new or used car dealers, vehicle lessors, vehicle finance companies or firms providing products and services to these firms or consumers, we can provide assistance with:

  • Violations of Reg. Z, Reg. M, State Motor Vehicle Retail Installment Sale Acts, Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices
  • Damage calculations related to varied loss theories of these aforementioned statutes and regulations
  • Lease and Retail Installment Sale Contract (RISC) portfolio modeling including delinquency, loss and recovery projections
  • Lease residual value loss modeling
  • Interpretation of complex industry business contracts and modeling of alternative interpretations with large portfolio

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Expert Witness
We provide expert witness services for cases involving vehicle dealer sales, finance company RISC and leasing issues.

  • Pre-litigation case evaluation
  • Litigation support for evaluation after litigation is commenced including working with counsel as to legal arguments, interrogatories, depositions, discovery, pre-trial preparation, advice during trial and expert report
  • Serving as expert witness during trial

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We provide expert witness services for both plaintiffs and defendants dealing with vehicle retail and wholesale sales, retail vehicle leasing; vehicle installment sales and related vehicle products and services including insurance coverages. We also provide consulting services to dealers and finance companies on vehicle leasing (and financing) including the implementation of Lease-Here Pay-Here programs.If you are representing vehicle new or used car dealers, vehicle lessors, vehicle finance companies or firms providing products and services to these firms or consumers, we can provide assistance with:

  • Violations of Reg. Z, Reg. M, State Motor Vehicle Retail Installment Sale Acts, Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices
  • Damage calculations related to varied loss theories of these aforementioned statutes and regulations
  • Lease and Retail Installment Sale Contract (RISC) portfolio modeling including delinquency, loss and recovery projections
  • Lease residual value loss modeling
  • Interpretation of complex industry business contracts and modeling of alternative interpretations with large portfolios
  • Suitability issues

Qualifications & Expertise:

  • 30+ years of experience in vehicle lease, finance and dealer sales
  • Architect of key 1998 Regulation M revisions and Federal Reserve Board (FRB) Lease Education Task Force products
  • Consultant to FRB on technical Reg. M issues
  • Consultant to National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) on RISC and leasing issues
  • Recognized national authority on vehicle leasing
  • Author of two books on retail vehicle leasing and lending
  • Adviser and consultant to both dealer and finance company clients
  • Expert witness on more than $2 billion of loss claims
  • Law school professor at University of Texas Law School and Vanderbilt Law School

 

 

 

 Areas of expertise:

  • Dealer sales practices
  • Regulation Z
  • Regulation M
  • Retail Installment Sale Contracts
  • Vehicle leasing
  • Dealer after market products
  • Dealer Finance & Insurance sales
  • Dealer wholesale financing
  • Residual value insurance
  • Supreme financing
  • Buy-Here Pay-Here financing
  • Lease-Here Pay-Here financing
  • Lease taxation
  • Lease end-of-term issues
  • Delinquency and loss management
  • Collections and operations

Recent Expert Witness Cases Include:

  • $80 million, 22,000 plaintiff class action alleging deceptive F&I training for sale of window etching:  developed alternative damage model reducing damages by more than 40% Read More
  • 32-person class alleging deceptive sale of leases:  utilized experience developing the Federal Reserve Board Lease Education website to show benefits of leasing and even using plaintiff’s deception theory find 10 errors in plaintiff damage methodology reducing damages by more than 85%. Read More
  • Class action against all California franchise dealers alleging undisclosed “negative equity” on lease trade-ins:  demonstrated variability of trade-ins not subject to class action treatment and that no extra sales tax or rent charge paid even if negative equity did exist
  • Wholesale lender assertion that dealers buying vehicles out of trust were not “in ordinary course of business” and thus lender security interest was maintained
  • Development of manufacturer vehicle repurchase formula after MSRP mislabeling of vehicle content and report on industry custom and practice
  • Class action defense for dealer backdating of second retail installment sale contract (RISC) alleging violation of Reg. Z APR and finance charge disclosures and California Auto Sales Finance Act (ASFA):  demonstrated RISC backdating didn’t violate Reg. Z in most cases or California ASFA