Posts by Barron & Newburger
Barron & Newburger Sponsors Austin Film Festival
Barron & Newburger, P.C. is a proud sponsor of the 2019 Austin Film Festival. Known as the Writer’s Festival, this year’s festival features 23 movie premieres as well as numerous panels with industry leaders. Barron & Newburger founder, Barbara Barron said, “We have been a film festival sponsor for many years as a way to…
Read MoreCourt Rules “Informational” Letters Did Not Violate Discharge
A recurring problem in bankruptcy is how lenders can provide information about a debt to a borrower without violating the discharge or the automatic stay. In some cases the borrower may wish to continue making payments and would appreciate receiving payment notices. In other cases, the lender may be required to send notices to the…
Read MoreProofs of Claim on Time-Barred Debts Do Not Violate the FDCPA
A divided Supreme Court has ruled in Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson that filing a time-barred proof of claim in bankruptcy does not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The opinion by Justice Breyer was joined by four conservative justices. The opinion drew a dissent from Justice Sotomayor who was joined by Justices Ginsberg…
Read MoreInsights from CFPB Annual FDCPA Report — Customer Complaints
Last month, the CFPB published its annual report on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1692, et seq. As with its former reports, the CFPB included a section about consumer complaints. In his introduction to the report, Director Richard Cordray states that debt collection was the number one category consumers complained about.…
Read MoreCFPB Annual FDCPA Report – An Introduction
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued its annual report to Congress on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. As always, this report mixed a healthy dose of natural, self-congratulatory rhetoric with significant insights to the state of the industry and the regulatory environment. While future posts will address specific issues raised by the report, the…
Read MoreCalifornia Supreme Court Continues to Resist Arbitration
On April 6, 2017, the California Supreme Court invalidated a contractual arbitration provision on the basis that California state law prohibits enforcement of arbitration agreements that would bar claims for public injunctive relief. Its decision – California’s latest in a series of decisions aimed toward invalidating contractual arbitration provisions –appears inconsistent with the “national policy…
Read MoreA Catch-22 for Foreclosure Lawyers?
Foreclosure attorneys struggle to find an appropriate way to comply with the FDCPA’s requirement that a validation notice correctly state the amount of the debt in cases in which the balance is changing constantly due to a variety of factors. In Carlin v. Davidson Fink LLP, 2017 U.S. App. LEXIS 5438 (7th Cir. Mar. 29,…
Read MoreAttorney Representation Is Not Tied to Formal Appearance
The FDCPA forbids communicating with a consumer “if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney’s name and address, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to a communication from the debt…
Read MoreCan Spokeo Give Debt Collectors a New FDCPA Defense?
Many debt collectors have struggled with the question of whether a failure to send a timely validation notice pursuant to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is curable. The Act itself provides no mechanism to cure or repair a violation, and a debt collector that fails to send a timely validation notice as required by…
Read MoreFederal Court Limits Vicarious Liability for TCPA Claims
Earlier this week United Student Aid Funds prevailed on a summary judgment motion in a suit under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, providing a measure of hope for creditors that are sued for dialer calls placed by independent third-party debt collectors In Henderson v. United Student Aid Funds, No.: 13cv1845, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 28165…
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