Compliance

The Department of Veterans Affairs has published a final rule detailing how delinquent debts owed to the VA are reported to credit reporting agencies. The new rule, which establishes a minimum threshold for what will be reported, goes into effect on March 4. About 5,000 delinquent accounts are reported to …

A District Court judge in Indiana has rejected a defendant’s request to lower the amount of attorney’s fees awarded in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case, because it was the defendants who prolonged the litigation until it became clear that a jury was going to determine whether a “highly …

A District Court judge in Wisconsin has granted a defendant’s motion to dismiss a Hunstein lawsuit, ruling the plaintiff lacked standing to sue because “[a] debt collector that outsources the mechanical tasks of preparing and mailing letters that the debt collector itself is authorized to send does not inflict any …

The Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission yesterday announced the release of a Declaratory Ruling that classifies ringless voicemail messages to consumers’ cell phones as calls under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, meaning that consumers would have to provide their consent prior to receiving such messages. The Ruling — which …

The Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed one summary judgment ruling in favor of a defendant that was sued for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act yesterday while overturning a separate summary judgment ruling, concluding that one defendant was entitled to the FDCPA’s bona fide error defense …

A plaintiff in Illinois has filed a lawsuit against a payment processor and debt collector, alleging it violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Regulation F by making repeated phone calls to his cell phone after the plaintiff had asked for communications to be ceased. A copy of the …

After already granting a motion to dismiss on one claim that a collector violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it contacted a plaintiff seeking to collect on a debt that was actually owed by her granddaughter, a District Court judge in Florida has granted the defendant’s motion for …

Five of the nation’s major banking trade groups have sent a letter to Rohit Chopra, the Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, asking the Bureau to conduct a consumer study or focus groups before making any decisions on what to do about overdraft fees, arguing that the information published …

A District Court judge in Arizona has certified a class in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act case that alleged a financial institution made collection calls using an artificial or prerecorded voice to more than 1 million non-customers on their cell phones without first obtaining consent. A copy of the ruling …

For more than a year, judges across the country have been attacking the issue of standing and whether plaintiffs suing collectors for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act have suffered a concrete injury. In many of those cases, judges have indicated that a concrete injury is more than just …