A Florida magistrate judge recommended that debt collector Retrieval-Masters Creditors Bureau’s motion for summary judgment be granted in a suit alleging the company violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by overshadowing the 30-day window to dispute a debt in a collection letter sent to plaintiff Cheryl Rafferty.  The case is Rafferty v.

Last week a district court judge in the Northern District of Illinois granted a collection agency’s motion to dismiss, ruling that a collection letter, even coupled with a voicemail, did not present a sense of urgency sufficient to confuse an unsophisticated consumer in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. 

At

On February 28, Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) re-introduced the Protecting Job Opportunities for Borrowers (“Protecting JOBs”) Act (S.609).  The legislation would prevent states from suspending, revoking, or denying state professional, teaching, or driver’s licenses solely because a borrower falls behind on their federal student loan payments.

Government entities may seize state-issued

A district court in Texas, in Young v. ProCollect, Inc. (N.D. Tex. Feb. 21, 2019), granted summary judgment in favor of a defendant debt collector, ProCollect, Inc., where claims were asserted by the plaintiff, Ronnie Young, on behalf of himself and a putative class, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

In the complaint,

The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey recently dismissed a class action suit against a collection agency based on alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.  In its opinion, which can be found here, the Court held that a single collection letter, which included two telephone numbers and an

On February 26, the House Financial Services Committee held a hearing entitled “Who’s Keeping Score? Holding Credit Bureaus Accountable and Repairing a Broken System,” with the CEOs of the big three credit bureaus – TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian – testifying. The hearing was the first time the current CEOs of the major credit bureaus have

On February 25, the Federal Trade Commission announced that it had finalized a consent order settling its claims against online lender SoFi in connection with SoFi’s allegedly misleading advertising of its student loan refinancing products.   

The FTC issued a complaint in October 2018 alleging that SoFi, for more than two years, had overstated the

The Ninth Circuit recently invalidated the Central District of California’s local rule providing a strict deadline to file class certification motions no later than 90 days after service of a complaint.  Specifically, the panel held that the district court’s strict application of its local rules to the timeliness of the plaintiff’s motion was inconsistent with

On February 25, the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau reauthorized their Memorandum of Understanding, or “MOU.”

The MOU, which governs the FTC’s and CFPB’s joint operations, focuses on five key areas of cooperation:

  • Joint law enforcement efforts – The agreement requires one agency to give notice to the other prior to

Agoda Company Pte. Ltd., an international travel service provider based in Singapore, secured a summary judgment win on the affirmative defense of consent after a district court ruled the text messages it sent to a customer did not violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. 

After booking with Agoda to reserve hotel rooms on