The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released on May 7 a 538-page Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the Rule) that would update the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The Rule would be the first major update to the FDCPA since its enactment in 1977 and gives much-needed clarification on the bounds of federally-regulated activities of
The Eastern District of Pennsylvania concluded that an admitted professional litigant stated a claim under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when he received the defendant’s telemarketing calls on his cell phone. The determinative factor was lack of allegations and evidence that the plaintiff used the phone for the sole purpose of bringing TCPA lawsuits. A
The Supreme Court agreed to hear a consumer’s appeal from the Third Circuit’s ruling that his claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act were time-barred despite being brought within one year of discovering the violation. The circuits have been split on whether the one-year statute of limitations under the FDCPA begins to run when
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:
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
On October 29, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued a long-awaited ruling in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case involving the disclosure of the amount due in a collection letter. In Derosa v. CAC Financial, the Court affirmed summary judgment in favor of the debt collector and held that, if a debt
Despite two controlling decisions by the Second Circuit in Avila and Taylor, claims involving the “amount of debt” disclosure under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) continue to evolve thanks to the relentless efforts by the New York plaintiffs’ bar. But these permutations of the “amount of debt” claims continue to be successfully
In a case of first impression, the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan held that direct-to-voicemail messages qualify as a “call” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The Court’s opinion thus subjects another modern technology to the requirements of express consent and other strictures of the TCPA.
Defendant debt collector Dyck-O’Neal,
On May 31, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a $150,000 sanctions award against three consumer attorneys and their law firms for bad faith conduct and misrepresentations.
The opinion reads like a detective story and lays out, in the Court’s own words, “a mosaic of half-truths, inconsistencies, mischaracterizations, exaggerations, omissions, evasions, and failures to
In Echlin v. PeaceHealth, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that a debt collection agency meaningfully participated in collection efforts even if it did not have authority to settle the account, did not receive payments, and was not involved in collection beyond sending two collection letters. Accordingly, the collection agency