On September 28, 2017, the District of New Jersey denied a debt collector’s motion to dismiss a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) claim based on 1099C language contained in a collection letter.  This decision continues a recent trend, particularly within the courts of the Third Circuit, in denying motions to dismiss on this issue. …

On August 18, following a bench trial, the United States District Court for the District of Nevada found defendants Terrason Spinks and his company, Jet Processing, Inc., jointly and severally liable for $280,911,870 in consumer injury caused by violations of the Federal Trade Commission Act (“FTC Act”) and Electronic Fund Transfer Act (“EFTA”).  This case…

On September 21, the Department of Justice cleared the way for a group of the twenty-four largest U.S. banks to create a real-time payment system that will permit immediate transfer of funds between financial institutions.  The system was proposed by The Clearing House Payments Co., LLC (“TCH”), a joint venture between the twenty-four banks that…

On August 23, a federal judge in Illinois ruled that a consumer who had multiple accounts with different creditors assigned to the same collection agency did not effectively revoke consent for all accounts merely by revoking consent for one.  Specifically, the Court said that when a consumer told a collection agency to stop calling him…

On September 18, in an en banc review, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit overruled, in part, seminal cases Barger v. City of Cartersville, 348 F.3d 1289 (11th Cir. 2003) and Burnes v. Pemco Aeroplex, Inc., 291 F.3d 1282 (11th Cir. 2002), adopting a totality-of-the-circumstances analysis when facing questions of judicial…

On September 20, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued proposed policy guidance that would modify a mortgage disclosure law in an effort to protect applicants’ and borrowers’ privacy.

In 2015, the CFPB finalized changes to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (“HMDA”), which requires lenders to report and disclose to the public certain information about their…

In Fosbrink v. Area Wide Protective, Inc., William Fosbrink sued defendant Area Wide Protective in a class action complaint for allegedly violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s provisions regarding employment background checks.  According to Fosbrink, Area Wide violated the FCRA in three ways: (1) it failed to provide him with a stand-alone disclosure informing…

On September 20, a United States District judge for the Northern District of California granted defendant United Recovery System’s motion for attorneys’ fees and costs arising from its successful defense of a lawsuit based on alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the California Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, also known as…

Starbucks Corp. has been sued in a proposed class action in the Northern District of Georgia for alleged violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act with its employment application process.  Plaintiff Kevin Wills claims Starbucks rejected job applicants based on consumer reports without first providing a copy of the reports to the applicants and notifying…

On September 18, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a press release directing the New York Department of Financial Services to impose new rules on consumer reporting agencies (“CRAs”).  The new regulation would require CRAs to register with New York for the first time and comply with the state’s cybersecurity standard.  The standard – which…