Photo of Ethan G. Ostroff

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.

We previously reported on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Oliva v. Blatt, Hasenmiller, Leibsker & Moore, LLC, 864 F.3d 492 (7th Cir. 2017).  In Oliva, the sharply-divided Seventh Circuit held that the debt collector was liable under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act even though the collector followed a longstanding

We are pleased to announce that Troutman Sanders attorneys Ethan Ostroff and Ashley Taylor will be presenting during the Credit and Collection News Annual Conference at the Ritz- Carlton in Lake Tahoe, California. Ethan will be providing a “TCPA Update” on April 11 at 3:00 p.m., directly followed by Ashley speaking at 4:00 p.m. on

On March 22, 2018, the Eastern District of New York granted summary judgment to a collection agency in a “current account balance” case.  Specifically, the Court found no violation of the FDCPA because in its letter the debt collector did not have to notify the consumer that her balance may increase and the creditor was

On March 29, 2018, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit rendered a long-awaited opinion in what is commonly called a “reverse-Avila” or “current account balance” case, holding that it is not a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) for a debt collector to state a consumer’s

On February 16, a judge in the Eastern District of New York denied a defendant collection law firm’s motion to dismiss, finding that its collection letter violated the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because it did not clearly set out that interest and fees may accrue on the “current balance.”

In Polak v. Kirschenbaum

In addition to the hotly litigated mandatory disclosure of the “amount of the debt,” the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act also requires a seemingly straightforward statement of “the name of the creditor to whom the debt is owed” as set forth in 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(a)(2).  However, even this requirement has given rise to a

On January 31, a New Jersey District Court judge found that including a toll-free telephone number in an initial validation letter sent by a collection agency did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) and therefore granted a debt collector’s Rule 12(c) motion to dismiss.

In Riccio v. Sentry Credit, consumer plaintiff

Until last week, the CFPB was accepting comments on its proposal to conduct a survey on debt collection disclosures. This survey was closely linked to the CFPB’s planned debt collection rule that would impose additional restrictions and burdensome regulations on the debt collection industry. However, on December 14, 2017 – the last day to submit

On October 31, the United States District Court in the Eastern District of New York held that a debt collector violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by failing to disclose whether interest and fees may accrue on an account.  Specifically, the Court denied a debt collector’s summary judgment motion, stating that a collection letter