The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit has issued a decision upholding a district court ruling that several defendants based in the U.S. and Canada deceived consumers through a telemarketing scheme designed to sell them phony mortgage assistance and debt relief programs, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
The Court’s decision
New York Court administrators recently announced new rules impacting cases involving debt collector-plaintiffs with certain debt claims against consumers. As we discussed on May 7th when the proposed rules were announced, the new rules place a higher burden of proof on debt collector-plaintiffs to establish chain of title and that they actually own the debt
On August 1, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion rejecting federal jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) and the National Banking Act for a lawsuit filed by the Attorney General of Hawaii on behalf of state residents (sometimes called a parens patriae suit) against financial companies
On September 4, in Tierney et al. v. Advocate Health and Hospitals Corp., the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued an order dismissing a putative Fair Credit Reporting Act class action accusing Advocate Health and Hospitals Corp. of violating the FCRA by failing to secure health data stolen from
In Porter v. Dollar Financial Group, Inc., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122865, a Northern District of California court denied the defendant’s motion to compel arbitration based on the plaintiff’s allegation that the debt collection calls at issue were intended for a third party, and thus were not related to the contract containing the arbitration
In Payton v. Kale Realty, LLC, plaintiff Payton filed an amended complaint, asserting that defendant Kale used newly added defendant Voiceshot’s services to send unsolicited advertisements to potential customers’ cell phones. Voiceshot provides web-based cloud telecommunication services by which users can send mass text messages for a fee. Voiceshot is a Delaware company with
On October 1, 2014, in Williamsburg, VA, the Virginia Creditors Bar Association is hosting their Fifth Annual Collections Seminar. This event will feature comprehensive discussions on issues pertaining to Creditors’ Rights and Collections Law throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, including, but not limited to, presentations regarding bankruptcy, authenticating business records, FDCPA defense, the CFPB, and
On August 20, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission jointly filed an amicus brief in Hernandez v. Williams, Zinman & Parham, P.C. The case concerns the interpretation and enforcement of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and is currently on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
On January 2, 2014, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits collection agencies from charging consumers a percentage fee of the balance of their debt unless the consumer has explicitly agreed to such a fee arrangement. In Bradley v. Franklin Collection Services, Inc., a unanimous
In a June 2 decision, Judge Richard Posner, writing for a unanimous panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, criticized a number of statements and other aspects within a notice of class action settlement that had been approved by the district court. In response to a number of objections