On April 30, 2014, New York State’s chief judge, Jonathan Lippman, announced that he would institute new court rules and protocols aimed at the issue of obtaining default judgments against debtors. These rules offer more protection to debtors.
In a speech, the judge claimed that many debtors are never served papers and only learn a
On Thursday, May 1, 2014, the White House issued a report outlining initiatives to supposedly better protect privacy in light of the growing realm of big data, the term used to describe a collection of large and complex data sets. The report, titled “Big Data and Privacy: A Technological Perspective,” was presented to the President
On May 1, 2014, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published action letters for child welfare caseworkers to send to credit bureaus if they find errors on the credit reports of the children in their care. The CFPB stated that the nearly 400,000 children in the United States foster care system often lack a permanent address,
On Wednesday, the New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) became the first state financial regulator to use the Dodd-Frank Act’s “UDAAP” consumer protection standards against a corporation when it filed a lawsuit against an auto lender. The 2010 Dodd-Frank Act gives state regulators the ability to sue companies for engaging in unfair, deceptive, or
On Wednesday, April 9, 2014, Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) announced legislation seeking to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) to protect consumers from inaccurate credit reports and credit scores. Their legislation, the Stop Errors in Credit Use and Reporting (SECURE) Act, is aimed at easing the process by which
A recently passed bill by the West Virginia Legislature requires debt collectors to make new disclosures in initial letters to consumers. Effective June 6, 2014, section 46A-2-128(f) of the West Virginia Consumer Credit Protection Act (WVCCPA) is amended to require the initial written communication with a consumer to disclose the subject debt is beyond the
On April 15, 2014, a federal judge in New Jersey approved the settlement of a class-action suit against a law firm that allegedly violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Plaintiffs claimed that Mattleman, Weinroth & Miller, whose principal office is in Cherry Hill, NJ, and Executive Credit Management, located in Stanhope, NJ, had
On April 8, 2014, Senate Democrats introduced a bill that addresses a laundry list of frequent criticisms by federal and state regulators of the consumer reporting industry. The legislation, titled the Stop Errors in Credit Use and Reporting (SECURE) Act, is aimed at increasing the accuracy of consumer reports and assisting consumers who have information
Troutman Sanders’ lawyer David Anthony will be presenting at the upcoming American Conference Institute’s 18th National Forum on Consumer Finance Class Actions & Litigation. The conference will be held April 8-9, 2014 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel &Suites in Los Angeles, CA. David will be presenting on , “CLASS ACTIONS: New and Emerging
In an annual report issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday, March 31, 2014, the Bureau announced that it had received nearly double the number of consumer complaints in 2013 as compared to 2012. The report noted that 163,700 total complaints were brought to the Bureau’s attention in 2013, a jump from approximately