FDCPA

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On November 13, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that a debt collector’s voicemail message did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it never mentioned that plaintiff owed a debt or conveyed any information about the debt, despite being overheard by the plaintiff’s son.  In Zweigenhaft …

In Alexander v. Coast Professional, Inc., No. 12-cv-1461, (E.D. Pa. Sept. 5, 2014), the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania certified a class of Pennsylvania residents with defaulted student loans serviced by Coast Professional.  The class action under the FDCPA is based on the allegations that Coast Professional failed to…

On September 18, in Peters v. Financial Recovery Services, Inc., the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri held that neither the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) nor the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) prohibit a debt collector from charging state statutory pre-judgment interest after charge-off.  In reaching that…

In Porter v. Dollar Financial Group, Inc., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122865, a Northern District of California court denied the defendant’s motion to compel arbitration based on the plaintiff’s allegation that the debt collection calls at issue were intended for a third party, and thus were not related to the contract containing the arbitration…

On August 20, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission jointly filed an amicus brief in Hernandez v. Williams, Zinman & Parham, P.C.  The case concerns the interpretation and enforcement of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and is currently on appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.…

On January 2, 2014, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals found that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits collection agencies from charging consumers a percentage fee of the balance of their debt unless the consumer has explicitly agreed to such a fee arrangement.  In Bradley v. Franklin Collection Services, Inc., a unanimous…

In Bock v. Pressler & Pressler, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey held that it is false and misleading, within the meaning of FDCPA, for an attorney to file an FDCPA lawsuit without having meaningfully reviewed the complaint.  In granting summary judgment in favor of the consumer, the court…

Consistent with its expansive view of constitutional standing, the Ninth Circuit recently held that a plaintiff has constitutional standing under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to sue for a misrepresentation that was never actually communicated to him.

In Tourgeman v. Collins Financial Services, Inc., the plaintiff brought a class action lawsuit against multiple…

On June 27, 2014, Magistrate Judge Orlando L. Garcia of the United States District Court for the Western District of Texas recommended denial of a plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in an FDCPA action implicating settlement letter language for time-barred debt. The case, Schreve v. First National Collection Bureau, Inc., involved time-barred debt that…

On May 7, 2014, ACA International, the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals, submitted an amicus curiae brief in an important Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) dispute over settlement-letter language for time-barred debts. The plaintiff received a collection letter from the debt collector offering an opportunity to settle a debt after Michigan’s six-year limitations…