Richard
N. Feferman is an Albuquerque attorney. He has
built a three lawyer firm, Feferman & Warren, which handles a wide variety of individual and class
action consumer cases throughout New Mexico, Arizona
and Colorado. Most of the firm's cases are federal lawsuits
against car dealers, debt collectors, and lenders.
In 1999, the firm was nominated for trial lawyers of
the year by Trial Lawyers for Public Justice, for their
$669,000 jury verdict against a New Mexico car dealer
for odometer fraud and tortuous debt collection practices.
In 2004, Mr.
Feferman won a bench trial where the judge awarded
punitive damages of $250,000 against Fleetwood for mobile
home sales fraud.
His
favorable published decisions of nationwide impact include
Yazzie v. Amigo Chevrolet, Inc., 189 F. Supp.
2d 1245 (D.N.M. 2001) (used car dealer's failure to
allow consumers to examine and to sign title certificate,
which would have revealed identity of previous owner,
violates federal Motor Vehicle Information and Cost
Savings Act with intent to defraud), DiMezza v.
First USA Bank, et al., 103 F. Supp. 2d 1296 (D.N.M.
2000) (first court opinion upholding consumer's right
to sue creditors and other "furnishers" of information
for reporting false information on credit report) and Apodaca
v. Discover Financial Services, Inc., et al., 417
F.Supp.2d 1220 (D.N.M. 2006)
View Decision (punitive damages available
against credit reporting agency where agency's automated
system failed to take into account information provided
by consumer in mixed file dispute.)
Mr. Feferman
edited and co-authored Consumer Law in New Mexico,
published by the New Mexico State Bar Association.
Mr.
Feferman
is a 1971 graduate of the University of Michigan Law
School. As Executive Director of the New Mexico Legal
Services Support Project from 1977 to 1984, he operated
an innovative and highly successful in-house training
program serving 75 attorneys, 40 paralegals and 35 secretaries
scattered among 22 offices statewide. He also litigated
major statewide class action cases and consulted with
individual attorneys on cases. Prior to that, he spent
five years with the Michigan Migrant Legal Assistance
Project, serving as its Executive Director. He was the
supervising attorney of four lawyers and 25 seasonal
paralegal workers serving migrant and other farmworkers
throughout Michigan.
Mr. Feferman is also a nationally known speaker and author
on matters of law practice management, and his articles
appeared in many major national publications. Mr. Feferman
wrote Building Your Firm with Associates (American
Bar Association Press, 1988). He has conducted hundreds
of CLE seminars for lawyers.
Mr.
Feferman
is the father of two expensive fully-grown children.
He is an avid hiker and still weighs less than when
he graduated college.