The state Supreme Court dealt the payday lending industry another defeat today, though it’s still on a narrow bonding issue. The mother of all slapdowns on this gang of usurers is still someday in the future.
Attorney General Dustin McDaniel, whose constitutional duty it is to defend the state board that oversees the laughably unconstitutional scheme a payday-lenders-oiled legislature approved, offers this comment on the decision today:
This case, and the McGhee case handed down on the 17th, potentially sound the death knell for this industry. Jim DePriest and I met today and are considering our immediate options. I told the D-G today that we see this as devastating to the licensed payday lenders. We also think that bonding companies will flee the market. The Board decided two years ago that the conduct of the defendants in these cases did not invoke the bond protections. This office was required to represent the Board in the appeal, but essentially abdicated our time last Thursday to the bond company’s lawyer. As the Board’s lawyers, we will always defend their actions. As a consumer advocate, I see these decisions as giving us new wind in our sails.