A plaintiff in New Jersey has filed a class-action lawsuit against a debt collector, alleging that it violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by not reporting to the credit reporting agencies that debts had been disputed.
A copy of the complaint in the case of Hernandez v. Penn Credit can be accessed by clicking here.
The plaintiff is accusing the defendant of violating Section 1692(e)(A) of the FDCPA by falsely representing the status of a debt, Section 1602(e)(8) by failing to communicate that a disputed debt is disputed, and Section 1692e(10) by using false representation to attempt to collect on a debt. The plaintiff is seeking to include any individual for whom the defendant communicated credit information about a debt owed to a particular creditor that was known to be false or for whom the defendant failed to communicate that a disputed debt was disputed. The class is purported to include at least 50 individuals, according to the complaint.
The plaintiff included a letter that was sent to the defendant, indicating that he was disputing the debt in question. The letter also requested verification of the debt, and notified the defendant that the plaintiff was revoking consent to be contacted by telephone, requesting all future communications to be in writing.
After receiving the letter, the defendant “has communicated, to at least one person, credit information which is known or should be known to be false.” The plaintiff did not include any details about how he knew that the defendant failed to communicate that the debt was disputed. `