On February 22, 2019, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued a precedential ruling affirming a district court’s finding that Crown Asset Management LLC is a debt collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. In doing so, the Third Circuit interpreted the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Henson v. Santander, Consumer USA Inc., 137
A federal court in Pennsylvania recently awarded summary judgment in favor of a consumer who brought a suit under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act against a collection agency. The plaintiff alleged, and the Court agreed, that the collection letter misleadingly indicated that a dispute could be made by phone, despite the letter’s inclusion of
On January 22, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona found that a consumer had standing to pursue a claim under the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act. The case is Driesen v. RSI Enterprises Inc., No. 3:18-cv-08140-PCT-DWL (D. Ariz. Jan. 22, 2019).
The plaintiff, Kimberly Driesen, received phone
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) carries the risk of annihilative damages for class action defendants based on its remarkable statutory damages scheme. Because of this risk, the statute has been the subject of significant court and agency attention recently. And much of this attention – from the D.C. Circuit’s opinion in ACA International to
The United States District Court for the Western District of Texas recently granted summary judgment in favor of a debt collector, holding that letters sent with the same client account number for two different debts incurred with the same underlying creditor was not false, deceptive, or misleading or otherwise in violation of the Fair Debt
In a recent ruling, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s $10 million disgorgement order assessed jointly and severally not only against collection agencies but also their individual owners. The Second Circuit’s decision can be found here.
This case involved thirteen debt collection companies that operated pursuant to the same strategy:
On February 7, 2019, AllianceOne Receivables Management, Inc. (“AllianceOne”), a debt collector, agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a nationwide class action alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) for obtaining consumer reports on individuals with outstanding parking tickets without a permissible purpose.
The parties moved to approve the settlement after more
The Texas House of Representatives recently introduced new legislation, H.B. No. 996, to amend the Texas Fair Consumer Debt Collection Act (“TFCDCA”) to require debt buyers to provide additional written disclosures to consumers regarding debt that could be subject to a statute of limitations defense in a collection action.
The proposed bill comes as
The Federal Reserve Board of Governors and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) issued a joint advisory making financial institutions aware of a recent change to the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) that provides that financial institutions may offer to remove defaults in private education loan borrowers’ consumer reports under an approved rehabilitation program.
On January 31, 2019, Senator Mike Azinger introduced Senate Bill 495 to the West Virginia Legislature (referred to the Judiciary Committee). The Bill proposes amendments to the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act (“WVCCPA”), W. Va. Code § 46A-5-101, which are intended to “bring the Act in conformity with the federal Fair Debt Collection