On January 23, the Middle District of Florida issued an order dismissing a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act (“FCCPA”) putative class action because the defendant, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., did not qualify as a debt collector under the FDCPA.
The case is Rose Mary Rawls, et al. v. Wells
2018 was a busy year in the consumer financial services world. As we navigate the continuing heavy volume of regulatory change and forthcoming developments from the Trump administration, Troutman Sanders is uniquely positioned to help its clients successfully resolve problems and stay ahead of the compliance curve.
In this report, we share developments on
On December 17, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled in favor of a debt collector in Taubenfliegel v. Miller & Milone, P.C., granting a motion for summary judgment regarding the naming of the creditor in a collection letter.
Plaintiff Elizabeth Taubenfliegel alleged violations of Section 1692g of
A wave of lawsuits filed under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, especially in the Second Circuit, continues regarding disclosures of interest and fees in collection letters. Consumers have complained about failure to warn of interest and fees continuing to accrue, as well as failure to disclose that interest and fees did not accrue. The
On November 21, in Sweely Holdings LLC v. SunTrust Bank et al., the Supreme Court of Virginia issued an opinion that is beneficial to the mortgage industry in Virginia because it upheld a bank’s right to foreclose, even if it could have pursued other options under a forbearance agreement. In doing so, the Court
Last month, Troutman Sanders reported on the proposed TRACED Act which would instruct the Federal Communications Commission to engage in rulemaking to protect consumers from receiving unwanted calls and text messages from unauthenticated phone numbers. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai tweeted his approval for the bill, but the FCC is not waiting on Congress to fight
The Eastern District of Wisconsin issued a ruling dismissing an Equal Credit Opportunity Act case that asserted a novel claim regarding discrimination by a lender in requiring that the applicant remove disputes from his credit score before reviewing his application for a home equity loan. In Kolodzinski v. Pentagon Federal Credit Union, the Court
The West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act (“WVCCPA”) is a remedial statute designed to protect West Virginia consumers from improper debt collection. Only “consumers” have standing to file a lawsuit under the WVCCPA. The term “consumer” is defined as a natural person that owes a debt or allegedly owes a debt. But does a
On October 31, the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued an opinion in Guzman v. HOVG, LLC, No. 18-3013, (E.D. Pa. Oct. 31, 2018), denying a debt collector’s motion to dismiss a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act-based action because the validation notice included in the collection letter did not clearly state that the debtor can
Despite two controlling decisions by the Second Circuit in Avila and Taylor, claims involving the “amount of debt” disclosure under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) continue to evolve thanks to the relentless efforts by the New York plaintiffs’ bar. But these permutations of the “amount of debt” claims continue to be successfully