Photo of Mark J. Windham

Mark J. Windham

Subscribe to Mark J. Windham's Posts

Mark is counsel in the firm’s Consumer Financial Services Practice Group. Mark’s practice includes representing national, regional and local banks, nonbank lenders, and mortgage servicers in federal and state litigation.

Follow:Read more about Mark J. WindhamMark's Linkedin Profile

We are pleased to share our annual review of regulatory and legal developments in the consumer financial services industry. With active federal and state legislatures, consumer financial services providers faced a challenging 2023. Courts across the country issued rulings that will have immediate and lasting impacts on the industry. Our team of more than 140 professionals has prepared this concise, yet thorough analysis of the most important issues and trends throughout our industry. We not only examined what happened in 2023, but also what to expect — and how to prepare — for the months ahead.

Earlier this year, a district court for the Middle District of Florida upheld a jury award of $225,000 in punitive damages in a debt collection case finding the defendant’s conduct “reprehensible” based on the physical harm caused to the plaintiff, the defendant’s indifference or reckless disregard of the harm it caused to the plaintiff, the plaintiff’s financial vulnerability, and the defendant’s repeated actions.

The Connecticut Banking Commissioner (Commissioner), acting through the Consumer Credit Division of the Department of Banking (the Division), conducted an investigation into the Law Offices of David M. Katz, discovering that in 2018 and 2019 the firm had engaged in in unlicensed collection activity involving about 10,000 Connecticut accounts with a total balance of $1.4…

In Hansen v. Mountain America Federal Credit Union, the plaintiff became delinquent on a credit card account with her credit union. The credit union then assigned the debt to a third-party collection agency. Following the assignment, the collection agency opened its own tradeline for the debt, while the credit union also continued to report the debt. Although the credit union’s tradeline was updated to reflect that the account was “closed” and in collections, and the collection agency’s tradeline indicated that the credit union was the original creditor, both tradelines showed a balance, albeit for different amounts — $18,340 for the credit union and $20,875 for the collection agency.

In Gebreseralse v. Columbia Debt Recovery, LLC, the plaintiff, a tenant under a residential lease agreement, vacated the premises early due to concerns over the property’s condition. In response, the property management company engaged a collection agency to recover the remaining amounts claimed as due and owing under the lease.

In Casillas v. Thunderbird Collections Specialists Incorporated, et al., the plaintiff sustained a work-related injury requiring medical treatment for which a worker’s compensation claim was filed. Under state law, an injured worker who receives a workers’ compensation award is not legally responsible for medical bills covered by the award. Unaware of this law, a…

In Ingersoll v. Brandsness, the suit arose out of an effort by a collection agency and its counsel to obtain a judgment on unpaid medical bills. After the filing of the complaint, and the consumer’s filing an answer, the matter was referred to arbitration. Then, counsel for the collection agency moved for entry of…

Chris Willis, co-chair of the CFS Regulatory Practice, Announces the Publication of the 2022 CFS Year in Review and a Look Ahead

Troutman Pepper’s Consumer Financial Services Practice Group consists of more than 120 attorneys and professionals nationwide, who bring extensive experience in litigation, regulatory enforcement, and compliance. Our trial attorneys have litigated thousands of individual and class-action lawsuits involving cutting-edge issues across the country, and our regulatory and compliance attorneys have handled numerous 50-state investigations and nationwide compliance analyses.

We are pleased to share our annual review of regulatory and legal developments in the consumer financial services industry. Our team has prepared this organized and thorough analysis of the most important issues and trends throughout our industry. We not only examined what happened in 2022, but also what to expect — and how to prepare — for the months ahead.

On February 22, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed an enforcement action against digital asset exchange, CoinEx, for failing to register as a securities and commodities broker-dealer and for falsely representing itself as a crypto exchange without appropriate registration in violation of New York law. In the petition, filed in the New York…

In a recent decision, a Michigan district court found that because there was a genuine issue of fact as to whether the defendant debt collector notified the consumer reporting agency (CRA) to remove a disputed debt notification from the plaintiff’s tradeline, the case could proceed to trial.

In Evans v. Merchants and Medical Credit Corp.…