The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a ruling from a lower court that fined the owner of a credit monitoring service $5 million for engaging in deceptive acts after it was sued by the Federal Trade Commission, in what is considered to be a stunning rebuke of a …
Read More »Law Professor Notes Right to Verify Debt Not Included in Proposed Rule’s Model Validation Notice
A law professor who specializes in consumer protection issues has raised some concerns about whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s proposed debt collection rule provides a notification of the right for a consumer to receive verification of a debt when using the proposed rule’s model validation notice. Jeff Sovern, a …
Read More »NDIL Judge Grants MSJ For Defense in FDCPA Overshadowing Case
A District Court judge in Illinois has granted a defendant’s motion for summary judgment after it was sued for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by sending a second collection letter that allegedly overshadowed the validation notice during the 30-day window to dispute a debt. A copy of the …
Read More »Compliance Digest – August 26
Every week, AccountsRecovery.net brings you the most important news in the industry. But, with compliance-related articles, context is king. That’s why the brightest and most knowledgable compliance experts are sought to offer their perspectives and insights into the most important news of the day. Read on to hear what the …
Read More »Judge Denies BFE Defense Over Differing Balances in Collection Letter
A collection law firm is not entitled to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act’s bona fide error defense because it did not have the proper procedures in place to keep a programming mistake from happening, a District Court judge in Ohio has ruled in a bench trial, ordering a judgment …
Read More »Plaintiff’s Attorneys Publish Press Release Touting $1.2 Million Settlement With Debt Collector
A group of plaintiff’s attorneys in North Carolina are touting a $1.2 million settlement recently obtained in a case against a medical debt collection agency. The case against the unnamed collection agency stemmed from an alleged attempt to collect a debt that had been discharged via a Chapter 7 bankruptcy …
Read More »All 50 State AGs Announce Partnership With 12 Carriers to Fight Robocalls
The attorneys general of all 50 states and Washington, D.C., announced a partnership yesterday with 12 major telecom carriers to join together and fight the proliferation of robocalls through a set of shared “principles.” News of the partnership was shared at a press conference yesterday in Washington, D.C. Leading the …
Read More »Judge Grants MSJ For Defense in Ruling that All Predictive Dialers are Not ATDS’s
A District Court judge in Pennsylvania has granted summary judgment to a defendant that was accused of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act by contacting an individual on his cell phone after he had revoked consent to be contacted, because the defendant was not using an automated telephone dialing system. …
Read More »Judge Grants MTD in FDCPA Case Over Use of Form Complaint
Using a standard template form in a lawsuit against an individual does not constitute a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a District Court judge in Nebraska has ruled, granting the defendant’s motion to dismiss. A copy of the ruling in Schmitt v. Messerli & Kramer, P.A., can …
Read More »[UPDATED] Appeals Court Upholds Lower Court Ruling That QR Code on Envelope Violates FDCPA
[EDITOR’S NOTE: Updated below with comments from Jeff Freedman, the co-CEO of MRS] Less than two months after hearing arguments on the case, a panel of judges from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday unanimously affirmed a summary judgment ruling in favor of a plaintiff who sued a collection …
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