On February 22, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) introduced Senate Bill S. 355, which is intended to prevent health care providers and their agents from taking “extraordinary collection actions” relating to the collection of debts incurred from the “receipt of medical services, products, or devices.”
If passed, the COVID-19 Medical Debt Collection Relief Act
In Smith v. GC Servs. Ltd. P’ship, No. 19-3494 (7th Cir. Jan. 21, 2021), the Seventh Circuit affirmed a decision by the Southern District of Indiana finding that the plaintiff had not suffered any concrete injury and therefore, lacked standing to assert a claim under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.
The plaintiff, Franny Smith,
In an Order issued December 16, 2020, the Eastern District of Texas adopted the Report and Recommendation of United States Magistrate Judge Kimberly C. Priest Johnson finding that calls placed to a cellular telephone do not qualify as calls to a residential telephone subscriber for purposes of § 227(c) of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
In Gould v. Monarch Recovery Mgmt., No. 18-C-1282 (E.D. Wis. Nov. 10, 2020), the Plaintiff’s counsel sought $57,073.37 in attorneys’ fees after accepting an offer of judgment as to claims under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (“FDCPA”). Finding that counsel had achieved only limited success, the Court reduced the fees requested by fifty
In Truckenbrodt v. CBE Grp., Inc., No. 2:19-cv-2870 (ERK) (SMG), (E.D.N.Y. Oct. 21, 2020) the court dismissed a suit brought under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (“FDCPA”) after the plaintiff conceded that he had not actually read the collections letter at issue.
The plaintiff, John Truckenbrodt (“Truckenbrodt”), owes a debt that was referred to
In Johnson v. NPAS Sols., LLC, No. 18-12344 (11th Cir. Sep. 17, 2020), the Eleventh Circuit (the “Court”) found a series of errors in an order entered by the Southern District of Florida approving the settlement of a class action alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Significantly, the Court invalidated the
In Odom v. ECA Mktg., No. 5:20-cv-00851-JGB-SHK (C.D. Cal. Aug. 20, 2020), the Central District of California (the “Court”) permitted a claim for willful violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) to go forward even though it is undisputed that the plaintiff received only a single marketing call.
The plaintiff, Ryan Odom, alleges
The Middle District of Pennsylvania recently held that including line items for interest and fees in a debt collection letter when no interest or fees are sought does not violate the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (“FDCPA”).
In Reyes v. Associated Credit Servs., No. 1:19-CV-01670 (M.D. Pa. July 6, 2020), the plaintiff received a
In Tillman v. Navient Sols., LLC, No. 18-CV-04625 (N.D. Ill. June 15, 2020), the Northern District of Illinois dismissed a claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) based upon student loans that had been reported as being in default but that the plaintiff asserted had been discharged.
The plaintiff, Tillman, took out a
On July 2, 2020, three Senators – John Thune (R-S.D.), Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), and Todd Young (R-Ind.) – introduced a bill to update the law regarding the use of electronic documents in commerce.
The Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act (E-Sign Act), 15 USCS § 7001 et seq., was originally enacted in