On December 19, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced his intent to advance a legislative proposal to license debt collectors operating within the state. Announced as the 8th proposal of the 2020 State of the State agenda, it “would give the state new tools to regulate debt collectors – stopping unscrupulous practices and strengthening our
In December, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia refused to submit to arbitration a dispute alleging violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act because plaintiff Keith Hobbs provided a declaration stating that he did not visit defendant Apollo Interactive, Inc.’s website. In doing so, the Court kept alive a TCPA
Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton have agreed to merge effective April 1, 2020. The new law firm, Troutman Pepper Hamilton Sanders LLP, or “Troutman Pepper,” will have 1,100 attorneys in 23 offices across the country. Troutman Pepper will offer its clients greater resources and bench strength, enhanced practices and expanded geographical reach. The announcement follows
On December 17, a magistrate judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California granted judgment in favor of defendant debt collector Enhanced Recovery Company (“ERC”), thereby dismissing plaintiff Rene Ortiz’s pro se claims for violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The ruling was
Troutman Sanders recently secured dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a consumer in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, alleging the defendants violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by improperly adding statutory interest to a charged-off credit card debt in contravention of Georgia’s prejudgment interest statute. The District Court’s
On December 17, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware approved a settlement between Starion Energy Inc. and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in which Starion agreed to pay up to $10 million to resolve claims that it engaged in deceptive business practices and violated state telemarketing laws.
Starion is a retail provider
Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida started the New Year by granting a motion to stay a pending Telephone Consumer Protection Act case, Barnes, et al. v. CS Marketing LLC, et al.
In Barnes, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants are vicariously liable for telemarketing calls placed to them
Shortly before the end of the year, two bills, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier in 2019, that seek to amend the Fair Credit Reporting Act (“FCRA”) were amended and reported out by the House Committee on Financial Services for consideration by the full House.
H.R. 3622, titled “Restoring Unfairly Impaired Credit
With the ever-changing case law surrounding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, staying up to date with what cases are relevant and where courts stand on certain, very important definitions, can be an almost impossible task. Further, in the 28 years since the TCPA was enacted, the legislation has been considered outdated by many companies.
As
In Horia v. Nationwide Credit & Collection, Inc., the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a district court’s decision dismissing the plaintiff’s second FDCPA lawsuit.
Consumer plaintiff Henry Horia received separate correspondence from Nationwide Credit regarding two debts owed to two different creditors, both of which had been assigned to Nationwide Credit in