In the world of pick-up basketball, no one likes to play with the guy who cries foul every time he is lightly bumped going for a layup. It appears that the courts are starting to follow the same logic when it comes to Fair Debt Collection Practices Act claims.
In Flecha v. Medicredit, Inc., the Fifth Circuit decertified a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act letter class and noted that the putative class “present[ed] substantial questions of Article III standing.” In doing so, the Fifth Circuit became part of a growing trend of circuit courts that are raising significant questions as to whether a
On January 23, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of the class action complaint filed by plaintiff Muhammad M. Butt against FD Holdings, LLC d/b/a Factual Data in the case styled, Butt v. FD Holdings, LLC, d/b/a Factual Data. A copy of the Court’s opinion can be
Wire fraud cases, arising from what the Federal Bureau of Investigation calls “business email compromise,” are on the rise. In 2018, the FBI reported that business email compromise and other internet-enabled theft, fraud, and exploitation resulted in $2.7 billion of financial loss. See FBI – IC3 Annual Report Released. Surprisingly, even sophisticated parties and
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
In Dancel v. Groupon, Inc., No. 19-1831 (7th Cir. Oct. 9, 2019), the Seventh Circuit split with the Eleventh Circuit regarding jurisdictional discovery to prove federal subject matter jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act (“CAFA”).
This case involved a claim brought by Christine Dancel regarding the unauthorized use of Dancel’s image in Groupon
On December 20, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the Washington district court’s decision that denied Huuuge, Inc.’s bid to arbitrate a proposed class action based on a browsewrap agreement. In Wilson v. Huuuge, Inc., No. 18-36017, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 37952 (9th Cir. Dec. 20, 2019), the Ninth Circuit held that “because Huuuge did not
How many plaintiffs does it take to form a class action lawsuit? When it comes to satisfying Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 23(a)’s “numerosity” requirement, the traditional rule of thumb has been that 40 plaintiffs generally are enough, while 20 are too few. The range in the middle tends to be a closer call. Courts
On December 4, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied plaintiff Joanne Scanno’s attempt to obtain a larger fee award under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The Third Circuit affirmed the District Court’s ruling that a reduction in the fees sought was warranted because not only
Never before has a defendant won a trial in a certified Telephone Consumer Protection Act case. Astonishingly, this losing streak finally came to an end this month in Lyngaas v. Curaden AG, et al., where defendants Curaden AG and Curaden USA convinced the Court during the bench trial of a certified TCPA junk fax