by Jeff Sovern I've just been listening to the National Associate of Retail Collection Attorneys' (NARCA) symposium on debt collection held at GW on October 15 (the recordings are available here). I was particularly struck by Todd Zywicki's remarks in the third panel; the panel was titled "Legal Collections – The Essential Link to a Successful Credit-Based Economy." […]
Category Archives: Debt Collection
by Jeff Sovern Recently I heard an industry lawyer say that to know what regulators will do next, you should listen to consumer advocates. The only individual consumer advocate he mentioned was Peter Holland. So what is Peter Hollland calling for? He wants debt buyers, when suing a consumer, to disclose the agreement they entered into to […]
Here. An interesting report on a third circuit case on whether consumers can revoke their consent to receive automated calls. The case arose in the debt collection context and given the steep penalties under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act–$500 per call and $1500 for willful violations–could lead to a lot of litigation.
New NCLC survey finds that none of the U.S. state’s property exemption laws meet basic standards so that debtors can continue to work productively to support themselves and their families. States’ archaic exemption laws fuel the fast-growing debt buyer industry which churns out old and often poorly documented judgments that abuses the court system. Recommendations for reform are included.
International & Comparative Law Fellow Emanwel J. Turnbull at Maryland has written Account Stated Resurrected: The Fiction of Implied Assent in Consumer Debt Collection. Here's the abstract: When are modern American consumers like 17th century merchants? The answer is “now”. Often, in collection lawsuits, creditors allege that consumers in debt are liable for an “account […]
by Jeff Sovern As Deepak pointed out last week, a lot has been going on in debt collection, and one item is that the CFPB has issued a bulletin stating that people subject to its jurisdiction may not commit unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices in collecting debts. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act generally does […]
Suddenly, there's a lot going on the in the world of debt collection regulation. On the heels of yesterday's announcement by the FTC of a huge debt-collection settlement (discussed in the post below), the CFPB is announcing today that it will use its UDAAP authority to regulate the collection practices of banks. “It doesn’t matter […]
The report, by the New Economy Project, is titled The Debt Collection Racket in New York: How the Industry Violates Due Process and Perpetuates Economic Inequality. Some excerpts: Over the past decade, the number of debt collection lawsuits filed in New York’s courts has exploded, with upwards of 200,000 cases filed in 2011 alone. Creditors […]
On Thursday, the FTC and CFPB held a joint roundtable titled Life of a Debt: Data Integrity in Debt Collection. Journalist Fred Williams has a report at the Taking Charge blog. An except: At Thursday's meeting, [debt buyer and industry association president Richard] Munroe and other debt buyers didn't repeat the argument the collection industry […]
by Jeff Sovern Here. One surprise is that the regulator in question is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, which is showing still more evidence that it has escaped the clutches of the financial industry, which had captured the OCC in the past. An excerpt: The OCC’s investigation reflects the agency’s increasing focus […]