Daily Digest

BONA FIDE ERROR DEFENSE NETS DEFENDANT MSJ IN FDCPA CASE A District Court judge in Wisconsin has granted summary judgment to a defendant in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case after the defendant invoked the bona fide error defense because it used a creditor-approved abbreviation to reference the name …

MASSACHUSETTS ENACTS EMERGENCY DEBT COLLECTION PROVISIONS, BANS PHONE CALLS The state of Massachusetts has enacted a number of emergency debt collection provisions regulating what collectors can do which will remain in effect until a month after the governor lifts the state of emergency. JUDGE REJECTS REQUEST TO SET ASIDE DEBT …

GETTING TO KNOW NATE KALNINS OF THE STARK COLLECTION AGENCY Working in collections is the only job that Nate Kalnins has ever known, and he couldn’t be happier about that. Having started as a part-time collector in college and now an executive vice president, Nate has displayed an affinity and …

SENATE, WHITE HOUSE REACH DEAL ON STIMULUS PACKAGE, BUT QUESTIONS ABOUT DEBT COLLECTION REMAIN The Senate and White House early today announced they had reached a deal on a $2 trillion stimulus package to help keep the nation afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, but the particulars of the bill were …

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE: MARCH 24 The news is moving faster than most of us can keep up. Which states have issued shelter-in-place orders? Which states have placed prohibitions on debt collection? What is the federal government doing? There are so many more questions than answers. Read on for updates on where …

BATTLE BREWING OVER THE FATE OF THE DEBT COLLECTION INDUSTRY DURING CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE For lack of a better word, there is a battle brewing over the fate of the debt collection industry in the midst of the country’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. On one side, the industry is fighting …

STATES’ ACTIONS AGAINST CORONAVIRUS CAUSING UPROAR IN ARM INDUSTRY States across the country are taking bold and unprecedented steps to contain the spread of coronavirus, steps that are endangering the ongoing viability of the accounts receivable management industry. WASHINGTON ENACTS NEW DEBT BUYING LAW The governor of Washington has signed …

GETTING TO KNOW ALANNA KYLES OF BERLIN-WHEELER Working in collections is not a team sport, not an individual one. The people who succeed in this business are the people who embrace that concept. This possibly explains why Alanna Kyles has been in the business for more than two decades and …

JUDGE RULES CLIENT CODE ON OUTSIDE OF MAILER VIOLATES FDCPA A District Court judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that a six-digit number referring to a client code on the outside of a postcard constitutes a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and has granted a plaintiff’s motion for …

APPEALS COURT OVERTURNS DISMISSAL OF ‘SHOTGUN’ FDCPA, FCRA, TCPA CASE The Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has partially overturned a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit against a number of defendants alleging they violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the Telephone …