Consumer Law
Court Resolves FOIA Fight in Favor of BCFP
The United States District Court for the District of Columbia has resolved a two-and-a-half-year battle over whether the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection must release, under the Freedom of Information Act, documents related to the Bureau’s enforcement action against—and eventual consent order with—Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA). In Frank LLP v. Consumer Fin. Prot. Bureau, in…
Read MoreSeventh Circuit Vacates Fee Award Based on Mootness
The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has vacated an award of over $70,000 in fees and costs to a prevailing plaintiff in an FDCPA case. In Portalatin v. Blatt, Hasenmiller, Leibsker & Moore, LLC, the plaintiff sued a law firm and its debt-buyer client for filing suit in the wrong venue…
Read MoreBrit Suttell profiled in Creditor Collections Today
Creditor Collections Today wrote a nice profile of BNPC attorney Brit Suttell. Highlights include how Brit grew up addressing green cards in her father’s law office and how she wooed her wife by catching and grilling a salmon. Read the profile at https://www.creditorcollectionstoday.com/edition/weekly-lender-loans-2021-03-06?open-article-id=15633807&article-title=getting-to-know-brit-suttell-of-barron—newburger&blog-domain=accountsrecovery.net&blog-title=account-recovery-
Read MoreSupreme Court Rejects Discovery Rule in FDCPA Cases
The United States Supreme Court has affirmed the Third Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Rotkiske v. Klemm, holding that Section 1692k(d) of the FDCPA “unambiguously sets the date of the violation as the event that starts the one-year limitations period.” The decision overrules cases from multiple circuits that have allowed application of the “discovery…
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 More