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Ethan’s practice focuses on financial services litigation and compliance counseling, as well as digital assets and blockchain technology. With a long track record of successful litigation results across the U.S., both bank and non-bank clients rely on him for comprehensive advice throughout their business cycle.

Earlier this month, the Fourth Circuit issued an unpublished opinion holding a debt collector’s autodialed calls to a residential landline with VoIP service violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act due to the fact that the consumer was charged for each call.

In Lynn v. Monarch Recovery Management, Inc., No. 13-2358, 2014 U.S. App. LEXIS

On October 16, the Second Circuit in Nigro v. Mercantile Adjustment Bureau, LLC, ruled against a debt collector by holding that the agency violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when it repeatedly called the plaintiff about his deceased mother-in-law’s debt.  Despite the plaintiff providing the number called to the creditor, the Court of Appeals

The American Bankers Association, American Financial Services Association, Consumer Bankers Association, Consumer Mortgage Coalition, Independent Community Bankers of America, and Mortgage Bankers Association (the “Trade Groups”) have filed a brief as amici curae in support of the respondents in an appeal before the Supreme Court of the United States that involves a Truth in Lending

New York Court administrators recently announced new rules impacting cases involving debt collector-plaintiffs with certain debt claims against consumers.  As we discussed on May 7th when the proposed rules were announced, the new rules place a higher burden of proof on debt collector-plaintiffs to establish chain of title and that they actually own the debt

The CFPB recently announced via blog post that it will hold a “field hearing” on auto finance in Indianapolis on September 18 at 11:00AM.  The announcement indicates that additional details will follow, but that the hearing will include remarks from CFPB Director Richard Cordray, and that consumer groups, industry representatives, and the public are invited

On August 21, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has selected seven mortgage companies and five vendors to participate in a three-month pilot program that will aim to determine whether electronic filings could improve mortgage closings.  The pilot program is a part of the CFPB’s “Know Before You Owe” mortgage initiative.

Earlier this year in

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has published proposed changes to Regulation C, which implements the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA).  The HMDA was enacted by Congress in 1975, and on July 21, 2011, the rule-writing authority of Regulation C was transferred to the CFPB.  HMDA requires covered depository and nondepository institutions to collect and publicly

On January 2, 2014, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits collection agencies from charging consumers a percentage fee of the balance of their debt unless the consumer has explicitly agreed to such a fee arrangement.  In Bradley v. Franklin Collection Services, Inc., a unanimous

The Federal Reserve recently published its quarterly “Senior Loan Officer Opinion Survey on Bank Lending Practices,” based on a survey of large domestic and foreign banks.  The survey suggested that the implementation of Ability-to-Repay and Qualified Mortgage rule has resulted in lenders making fewer loans.  Under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer

In Bock v. Pressler & Pressler, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey held that it is false and misleading, within the meaning of FDCPA, for an attorney to file an FDCPA lawsuit without having meaningfully reviewed the complaint.  In granting summary judgment in favor of the consumer, the court