Compliance

A District Court judge in New York has reduced the amount of attorney’s fees to be paid by the defendant in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case by 80% of what the plaintiff’s attorney had requested, lowering both the hourly rate and the number of hours worked, while also …

A class-action lawsuit has been filed in Florida against a collector for allegedly violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act because the discount offers that were included in a collection letter were vague and deceptive. A copy of the complaint in the case of Edouard v. Unifin can be accessed …

A District Court judge in Kentucky has granted a defendant’s motion to dismiss and denied a plaintiff’s request for leave to file an amended complaint after filing a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuit against a collection law firm for allegedly overshadowing the validation notice by mentioning in a collection …

The Washington state legislature has passed a bill that would expand the state’s charity care law and make free healthcare available to individuals making 300% of the federal poverty level. The bill, HB 1616, now moves to the desk of Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, for his signature or veto. …

A Magistrate judge in New York has recommended that a defendant be found to have violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by making a second location information call to a debtor’s mother and by asking the mother to have her daughter — the debtor — call the defendant back …

The City of New York has reached a settlement with a for-profit university that will force the school to stop collecting on $20 million of unpaid student loans while also paying a fine of $350,000 for, among other allegations, collecting debts that were not owed, concealing its identity from former …

A bill has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-Ohio], the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, that would ban forced arbitration clauses in the financial services industry. A copy of the bill, S. 3755, called the Arbitration Fairness for Consumers Act, can be accessed by clicking …

A District Court judge in New York has disagreed with both the plaintiff and defendant in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case and remanded the case back to state court for lack of standing, ruling that the plaintiff did not suffer a concrete injury based on the claims that …

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A District Court judge in Kentucky has partially granted — and partially denied — a defendant’s motion for summary judgment in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case, ruling that a plaintiff’s request to have information sent to him via the mail rather then delivered over the phone, coupled with refusing …