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
A district court judge in California has certified a FDCPA letter class involving billing and collection letters sent by a collection company used by Hertz car rental agency. The plaintiff in DeNicolo v. Hertz Corp. alleges that the letters, sent to consumers after Hertz allegedly discovered damage to the returned rental cars, were attempts
In Guzman v. I.C. Sys., 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42595, 2021 WL 861914 (E.D.N.Y. Mar 8, 2021), Carolina Guzman (plaintiff) alleged that I.C. System, Inc. (defendant) violated the FDCPA by reporting to Experian that her debt to Sprint was “[s]eriously past due date/assigned to attorney, collection agency, or credit grantor’s internal collection department.” Id.
In Frank Gilbert v. I.C. System, Inc., the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois denied the defendant’s motion to compel arbitration in a FDCPA class action, holding that the corporate declaration offered by the defendant was insufficient to prove that the plaintiff actually saw and agreed to the account terms
In a putative class action, Santoro v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., 2020 WL 6586630, 19-CV-9782 (CS) (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 9, 2020), District Court Judge Cathy Seibel dismissed the plaintiff’s complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) for failure to state a violation of New York General Business Law (“GBL”) § 399-zzz, which is enforceable through GBL
New York Attorney General Letitia James and Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on November 4, 2020, that the State will continue the suspension of its debt collection efforts of medical and student debt through the remainder of the calendar year. The suspension, which was originally instituted during March 2020 as part of the state’s response to
Recently, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau filed an Amicus Curiae brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit addressing whether a debt collector violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by accurately stating that it is seeking to collect $0.00 in interest and collection fees, including when interest and collection fees
One of the first lines of defense when defending allegations of a statutory violation is the statute of limitations. As a complete bar to a plaintiff’s claims, the statute of limitations is one of the most powerful tools in a defense litigator’s pocket. Recently, the Fourth Circuit joined the Sixth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuits in
Earlier this week, millions of Americans began receiving direct deposits from the federal government as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”), signed into law last month. Although meant to provide relief to consumers feeling the impact of furloughs and pay cuts as a result of the
New York’s legislature granted final approval last Thursday to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2021 Executive Budget, ending a months-long policy battle to focus instead on the ongoing war with the coronavirus (“COVID-19”). The approved budget, however, is substantially different than the one originally proffered by Gov. Cuomo on January 21, 2020. As New