Words matter, especially in debt collection communications. As a collector recently learned the hard way, debt collectors should attempt to use words precisely in order to comply with the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.
In Hackler v. Tolteca Enterprises, Inc., plaintiff Sadie Hackler rented a home in Texas. After she moved out, her landlord charged
On January 3, 2020, in Buchholz v. Meyer Njus Tanick, P.A., No. 18-2261 (6th Cir. 2020), the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court’s decision dismissing a complaint alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act on the grounds that the plaintiff lacked Article III standing. The Court found the
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently dismissed a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act suit with prejudice brought over disclosure language in a debt collection letter. The Court found that while certain disclosure language is included in the FDCPA, failure to include it does not necessarily give rise to
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
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
Creditors and debt collectors are often held to high standards when it comes to consumer protection laws. On December 17, however, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Illinois issued a Memorandum Opinion in In re: Charles V. Cook, Sr., No. 1:14-bk-36424, evincing that debtors’ counsel can be subject to
In a recent decision, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York found that the inclusion of a collection fee in a post-default collection letter sent by a debt collection company did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
In Ossipova v. Pioneer Credit Recovery, Inc., et al., No.
The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida has awarded summary judgment in favor of a furnisher on a consumer’s claims brought under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The dispute arose out of credit reporting on the account. The plaintiff asserted that the furnisher violated credit reporting standards by inaccurately identifying
On December 12, the Tenth Circuit upheld a district court’s denial of a motion for leave to file an untimely appeal. The ruling offers poignant punctuality lessons to attorneys nationwide.
The case concerned plaintiff Emily Boscoe Chung’s allegations that defendant Timothy J. Lamb violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Three years into litigation, Chung’s