The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau yesterday announced an enforcement action against Bank of America, in which the nation’s second-largest financial institution will pay a fine of $10 million after it was accused of unlawfully garnishing $592,000 from its customers’ bank accounts. A copy of the settlement order can be accessed …
Read More »Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of FDCPA Suit Over Garnishment
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld the dismissal of a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act case in which a defendant was accused of violating the statute by garnishing the plaintiff’s wages to enforce a nonfinal judgment, ruling that alleging a violation of Washington’s state garnishment law …
Read More »NCLC Report Rates States on Exemption Laws
There isn’t a state in the country that is adequately protecting families from debt collectors, debt buyers, and creditors with exemption laws, allowing individuals to keep some of their assets or paychecks when a garnishment order or judgment is awarded, according to a report issued this week by the National …
Read More »Mass. AG Sings Familiar Tune Warning Collectors From Trying to Seize Stimulus Funds
Like Summer follows Spring and Fall follows Summer, so too does another round of reminders to debt collectors that stimulus funds are protected from garnishment follow the latest round of stimulus payments now being sent to individuals across the country in the form of the child tax credit. The child …
Read More »Maine Enacts Law Raising Garnishment Protections
By virtue of not vetoing it, a new law has been enacted in Maine that expands the protections consumers will have with respect to garnishments, including for the first time, funds that consumers have in their bank accounts. This is the first time that Maine has updated its garnishment protections …
Read More »WDNY Judge Grants Motion to Compel in FDCPA Case Over Alleged False Statements
A District Court judge in New York has rejected a plaintiff’s legal theory that a judgment obtained in a collection suit extinguishes the underlying debt and thus the underlying agreement, and instead granted a defendant’s motion to compel arbitration and dismissed a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act class-action lawsuit without …
Read More »Calif. AG Issues Warning That Child Tax Credits are Exempt From Garnishments
A month before the federal Child Tax Credit payments start landing in the bank accounts of individuals across the country, the Attorney General of California issued a warning to financial institutions, creditors, and debt collectors that it is illegal to seize those funds to pay individual debts under a state …
Read More »Judge Denies MTD on FDCPA Claims Over Garnishment Info Sent to Wrong Person
A District Court judge in Washington has partially granted a defendant’s motion to dismiss, but denied the motion related to claims the defendant allegedly violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it mistakenly sent two letters to the plaintiff informing him that a writ of garnishment had been entered …
Read More »Toomey Blocks Anti-Garnishment Legislation From Moving Forward in Senate
Previously, on “All My Garnishments” we saw several characters rush to protect the economic stimulus funds that have started landing in consumers’ bank accounts from being garnished by big, bad debt collectors. In today’s episode, Sen. Pat Toomey [R-Penn.], the ranking member of the Senate Banking Committee, blocked legislation that …
Read More »Garnish-mentions
As we turn our attention to another episode of “All My Garnishments” there have been a number of developments aimed at keeping debt collectors from garnishing the economic stimulus funds that are now being deposited into the bank accounts of consumers nationwide. On the Congressional level, a bill was introduced …
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