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
Joining an “overwhelming majority of the courts in this district,” the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey recently held that a plaintiff alleging misleading representations in a debt collection letter under 15 U.S.C. § 1692e of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) demonstrated concrete injury sufficient to confer Article III
In A-1 Premium Acceptance, Inc. v. Hunter, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the circuit court’s order denying counterclaim defendant A-1’s motion to compel arbitration because the plain language of the consumer arbitration agreement limited the arbitrator to the National Arbitration Forum (NAF). After the parties executed the arbitration agreement, NAF entered into a consent
A court in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa recently ruled that the protections applicable when consumer reports are obtained for “employment purposes” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) do not extend to reports obtained for independent contractors. This issue has been unsettled and both employers and background screening
On November 29, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s grant of summary judgment to Drexel University in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case brought by a former student.
In Tiene v. Law Office of J. Scott Watson PC, No. 18-1221 (3d Cir. Nov. 29,
The Northern District of California recently dismissed a putative class action, filed under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, challenging an employer’s inclusion of state-specific information in its FCRA consent and disclosure form. The Court held that the plaintiff had no standing to assert her FCRA claim because she failed to plead a concrete injury-in-fact.
In
On December 4, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it is seeking comment on whether the agency should make changes to rules requiring that financial institutions and creditors take certain steps to detect signs of identity theft that may affect their customers.
In a press release, the FTC stated that as part of its
On November 16, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a memorandum opinion in Crystal Davis v. Credit Bureau of the South denying counsel’s statutory attorney’s fees for a successful Fair Debt Collection Practices Act claim. The opinion—which is well worth the read—can be accessed here.
The appellant consumer, Crystal
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
On November 14, the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection filed an amicus brief with the United States Supreme Court, arguing a law firm’s nonjudicial foreclosure actions to enforce a security interest on a mortgage debt fell outside the purview of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because the activity did not constitute “debt collection.”