11th Circuit affirms that debt collector can be liable under FDCPA for filing bankruptcy claim on time-barred debt

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit yesterday affirmed its 2014 holding that a debt collector violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it files a proof of claim in a bankruptcy case on a debt that it knows to be time-barred. In this case, the debt collector argued that the earlier decision put the FDCPA and the Bankruptcy Code in irreconcilable conflict. Yesterday's decision in the cases Johnson v. Midland Funding Inc. and Brock v. Resurgent Capital Services disagreed. The court explained:

Although the Code certainly allows all creditors to file proofs of claim in bankruptcy cases, the Code does not at the same time protect those creditors from all liability. A particular subset of creditors—debt collectors—may be liable under the FDCPA for bankruptcy filings they know to be time-barred.

The Eleventh Circuit's opinion is here.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *