Daily Digest – March 17. FDCPA Class Action Filed Over Whether Attorney Was Acting as Collector; Judge Grants MTD in FDCPA Case

FDCPA CLASS ACTION FILED OVER WHETHER ATTORNEY WAS ACTING AS COLLECTOR

• Having read a fair number of complaints invoking allegations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, there are a lot of similar points in the collection process where a plaintiff feels that he or she has been wronged. This, however, is the first complaint I can remember where the two sides disagreed over the fundamental component of the FDCPA — whether the defendant was a collector and whether an outstanding balance is, in fact, the same thing as an unpaid debt. What makes this case even more interesting is that it is a class action and the shots that attorneys on both sides take at one another in their communications with each other.
• More details here.
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JUDGE GRANTS MTD IN FDCPA CASE FOR LACK OF STANDING

• Too little, too late, a District Court judge in New York has ruled, granting a defendant’s motion to dismiss a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case, determining that claims raised by the plaintiff in opposing the motion to dismiss to prove she had standing do not reach the threshold necessary to allow the case to proceed.
• More details here.

COMPANIES ILLEGALLY COLLECTING ON STUDENT LOANS DISCHARGED IN BANKRUPTCY: CFPB

• The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday released a bulletin warning companies to go back and look at money it collected from individuals with student loans to make sure they were not collecting money for loans that had been properly discharged during bankruptcy proceedings, and if it had collected on those loans, to return that money back.
• More details here.

REPORT CALLS OUT PLAINTIFF’S ATTORNEYS FOR MASS ARBITRATION ’SHAKEDOWN’

• The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform has published a report calling out plaintiff’s attorneys for filing hundreds or thousands of similar demands against a defendant in arbitration proceedings that force defendants to settle claims in a form of “blackmail.”
• More details here.

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Funny Friday, part I

Funny Friday, part II

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