In an era where the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has abandoned its consumer protection mission, state attorneys general are determined to carry out theirs. This week, for example, Massachusetts AG Andrea Joy Campbell announced a final consent judgment against debt collectors, debt buyers, and their owners. The judgment reportedly will provide $52 million in […]
Category Archives: Debt Collection
Here. Funny how whenever someone argues for creation of a private claim for consumers, you hear opponents complain that the private claims will flood the courts but you never hear anyone say that these debt cases are flooding the courts. I wonder how much taxpayers are contributing to debt collection at this point.
The New Jersey Consumer Finance Licensing Act (CFLA) requires consumer lenders to obtain a license, and provides that if a lender violates that provision “in the making or collection” of a loan, the loan contract “shall be void” and the lender “shall be guilty of a crime of the fourth degree.” In a unanimous opinion […]
Alisher Juzgenbayev, a J.D./Ph.D. Candidate at Northwestern, has written The Vanishing Enforcer: Consumer Protection in an Era of Dual Retrenchment, 120 Nw. L. Rev. 1449 (2026). Here’s the abstract: Recent developments, including reductions in the federal workforce, effective suspension of certain enforcement activities, and attempted centralization of independent agency rulemaking in the White House, have […]
With Angie Littwin of Texas, NCLC’s Carla Sanchez-Adams, and others at Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast.
Kate Elengold of UNC and Sophie Laing Pine Tree Legal Assistance, Inc. have written Offsetting Justice: Using Government Power To Collect Private Debts, 175 Penn. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2027). Here’s the abstract: Private creditors regularly hire third-party debt collectors to recoup debt on their behalf by contacting, coercing, and suing consumer debtors. Scholars, advocates, and policymakers […]
Here or go to Pete Barry featured on ABC’s 20/20 & Nightline – YouTube. Painful listening. Another reason we need an actual CFPB.
Touting it as containing “the strongest protections in the country against debt collector harassment,” New York City’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP) yesterday published its “Stopping Harassment and Intimidation and Ensuring Lawful Debt (SHIELD) Collection Rule.” According to DCWP, the rule “allow[s] New Yorkers to dispute their debt at any time, further limiting […]
Here, at Ballard Spahr’s Consumer Financial Law Monitor podcast. The authors are Pamela Foohey of Georgia, Robert M. Lawless of Illinois College of Law and Deborah Thorne, Professor of Sociology at the University of Idaho, and the book is about who seeks bankruptcy and what drives them to do so. Warning: you will order the […]
The Seventh Circuit issued a decision in Milam v. Selene Finance today, an FDCPA case where the Court punted on the merits but addressed standing in a manner that may be notable for practitioners. Ramona Milam sued Selene Finance, the servicer of her home mortgage, after Selene sent her a letter threatening acceleration and foreclosure if […]