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CIRCUIT COURT SPLITS WITH OTHERS IN DECIDING FILING TIME-BARRED CLAIM IN BANKRUPTCY DOES NOT VIOLATE FDCPA
- The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit split with other Circuit Court rulings earlier this week when it decided that a creditor that filed a proof of claim in a consumer bankruptcy case did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, even though the claim’s statute of limitations had expired. Filing the claim was not the same as “litigating” or “attempting to litigate,” according to the ruling, which would constitute violations of the FDCPA. The split in Circuit Court rulings could prime this issue for an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
MASSACHUSETTS STATE COURT RULES CALLING, BUT NOT LEAVING MESSAGE, STILL COUNTS AS A COMMUNICATION
- A call from a collector that reaches an individual’s voicemail but where the collector chooses not to leave a message still counts as a communication in Massachusetts, according to a state court ruling. Massachusetts has a state law that limits the number of times a collector can communicate with a borrower to two phone calls over a seven-day period. In this case — Watkins v. Glenn Assocs., Inc., — the collector talked to an individual and called back four more times — two times five days after the initial call and two times six days after the initial call — but did not leave a message on any of those four occasions. The court ruled that calling from a phone number identified as belonging to the collection agency constituted conveying enough information to the individual about the nature of the call, even though no voicemail message was left. More details about the case are available here.
AUTO LENDERS LOSES MOTION TO DISMISS CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT CLAIMING VIOLATIONS OF FDCPA, TCPA
- Santander Consumer USA lost a motion to dismiss a potential class-action lawsuit and must face claims it violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act when collecting on delinquent car loans. The plaintiff is alleging violations of the TCPA because she received between 20 and 30 pre-recorded voice calls and “many dozens” of “automatic telephone dialing system” calls. The plaintiff also submitted payments to Santander via the telephone and online, and in both cases, was charged a “convenience fee” for making those payments. The plaintiff alleges that the convenience fees violated the FDCPA, “which prohibits debt collectors from collecting ‘any amount’ concerning a consumer debt unless such amount is ‘expressly authorized by the agreement creating the debt or permitted by law.”
NEWSPAPER COLUMNIST STANDS UP IN FAVOR OF PAYDAY LENDING
- An interesting opinion from the Orange County Register, which asks: what right does the government have to tell a willing borrower and a willing lender, who voluntarily enter into a contract, that they cannot agree that $300 today is worth $345 in two weeks’ time? When it comes to payday lending, the columnist opines, the government is the predator, not the payday lender. “… severely regulating or banning payday lending not only violates the freedom of contract, it also throws the baby out with the bathwater by cutting off a vital option for those who may not be able to borrow from banks or credit cards, or who simply find payday lending more convenient.” It’s odd to see a mainstream media outlet stand up in endorsement of payday lending.
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The importance of staring out the window
You have to wonder how the bear got stuck in this car in the first place
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The Daily Digest is sponsored by TCN, a leading provider of cloud-based call center technology for enterprises, contact centers, BPOs, and collection agencies worldwide.