Last year, a professional plaintiff obtained a judgment of over $828k in a case alleging 104 calls in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). The district court in the Northern District of West Virginia found that the individual and corporate defendants failed to respond “fulsomely and accurately” to discovery requests and to comply with court orders pertaining to those requests. As a sanction, the district court entered a default judgment against them.
On November 30, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sherrod Brown (D-OH) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen requesting that she coordinate with other financial regulators to further work on the recommendations from the Financial Stability Oversight Council Report on Digital Asset Financial Stability Risks and Regulation (FSOC report), which we previously discussed here.
Earlier this year, the Eleventh Circuit reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit when it held that monthly mortgage statements required by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and Regulation Z can constitute communications in connection with the collection of a debt under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA). More recently, the court reaffirmed this
On March 18, the West Virginia legislature passed Senate Bill 5, amending the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act (WVCCPA). The amendments will apply to all causes of action filed on or after June 16, 2021, the effective date of the amendments.
The amendments signal a continuing trend in West Virginia toward equalizing
2020 was a transformative year for the consumer financial services world. As we navigate an unprecedented volume of industry regulation, Troutman Pepper is uniquely positioned to help its clients find successful resolutions and stay ahead of the compliance curve.
In this report, we share developments in 2020 on consumer class actions, background screening, bankruptcy,
Last year, Sen. Mike Azinger (R-W.Va.) introduced Senate Bill 495 to the West Virginia Legislature, where it was referred to the Judiciary Committee. The bill proposed amendments to the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act, W. Va. Code § 46A-5-101, which was intended to “bring the Act in conformity with the federal Fair Debt
Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, along with the states of Minnesota, North Carolina, and California, filed a lawsuit in California federal court against a student loan debt-relief operation. The CFPB alleges that the companies charged over $71 million in unlawful advance fees in connection with the marketing and sale of student loan debt-relief services
One of the most ambitious (i.e., bad) arguments ever made by a defendant in a TCPA case was rejected by the Western District of New York in Gerrard v. Acara Sol. Inc., 1:18-cv-1041, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 108038, 2019 WL 2647758 (W.D.N.Y. June 27, 2019). Acara Solutions argued their text messages with
A pro se plaintiff’s lawsuit brought pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act was dismissed by the District of New Jersey for lack of standing in Kraft v. Phelan Hallinan Diamond & Jones, P.C., U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126323 (D. N.J. July 30, 2019). Plaintiff Warren R. Kraft inherited real estate from his deceased
Last fall, Troutman Sanders reported that the Federal Communications Commission released its final report and order creating a reassigned numbers database to block robocalls. The FCC has now issued formalized policies to allow carriers to block calls by default using “reasonable analytics.”
The final version of the ruling is largely unchanged from the proposed version.