On January 11, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it reached a settlement with law firm Forster & Garbus, LLP in its lawsuit over alleged illegal debt collection practices. Specifically, the CFPB alleged that, from 2014 through 2016, fewer than a dozen attorneys filed more than 99,000 debt collection lawsuits, while having the requisite
Recently, in Velez v. Absolute Resolutions Investments., LLC, the district court for the Northern District of Illinois confirmed the long-standing principle that not all communications sent from a debt collector to a debtor are governed by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Instead, the communications must be in connection with the collection of
On Dec. 15, 2022, the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council’s (FFIEC) Task Force on Consumer Compliance adopted revised examination procedures for the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and its implementing regulation, Regulation F.
The revised interagency procedures will apply to examinations conducted by FFIEC’s member regulators of their respective regulated institutions. FFIEC is composed
On January 4, the District Court of New Jersey dismissed a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) complaint against an unlicensed debt collector for lack of standing. In Valentine v. Unifund CCR, LLC, et al., the court held that merely receiving a letter from an unlicensed debt collector is insufficient to establish a concrete injury
FIA Card Services, NA (FIA) obtained a default judgment in a collection action against Jerome Redman in West Virginia state court. FIA, through its counsel Javitch Block LLC (Javitch), then filed a wage garnishment action against Redman to collect the judgment. Once Redman became aware of the default judgment, he filed a motion to set
The attorney general of Massachusetts reached a settlement with a payment processing company that allegedly assisted a debt settlement company engaged in charging consumers premature and inflated fees.
In 2021, debt settlement company DMB Financial LLC entered into settlements with the Massachusetts AG and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) over claims that it engaged
A recent opinion issued by the Tenth Circuit serves as further confirmation that plaintiffs bringing Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) claims in federal court must allege sufficient concrete injury — tangible or intangible — to confer Article III standing. The holding also underscores that FDCPA claims predicated on disclosure of debtor information to third
On December 1, the Connecticut Department of Banking issued a cease and desist order to the Law Offices of David M. Katz mandating the law firm cease conducting collection activities in the state without a license. The law firm was also fined $100,000, the maximum allowed by law.
Earlier this year, the Department of Banking
On December 5, an Arizona Superior Court for Maricopa County issued an Order to Show Cause to the state of Arizona and scheduled an expedited evidentiary hearing in a suit challenging the newly passed Arizona Protection from Predatory Debt Collection Act (the Act), also known as Proposition 209. Arizona voters passed the Act in the
In Hanrahan v. Statewide Collection, Inc., No. 21-16187 (9th Cir. Sep. 1, 2022), the Ninth Circuit affirmed an award of attorneys’ fees in favor of the plaintiff in an action brought under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA). The case makes clear that, although the amount is discretionary, attorney fee awards to prevailing