Skip to Content (Press Enter)

Skip to Nav (Press Enter)

Consumer Finance

Subscribe to Consumer Finance

Thank you for your desire to subscribe to Severson & Werson’s Consumer Finance Weblog. In order to subscribe, you must provide a valid name and e-mail address. This too will be retained on our server. When you push the “subscribe button”, we will send an electronic mail to the address that you provided asking you to confirm your subscription to our Weblog. By pushing the “subscribe button”, you represent and warrant that you are over the age of 18 years old, are the owner/authorized user of that e-mail address, and are entitled to receive e-mails at that address. Our weblog will retain your name and e-mail address on its server, or the server of its web host. However, we won’t share any of this information with anyone except the Firm’s employees and contractors, except under certain extraordinary circumstances described on our Privacy Policy and (About The Consumer Finance Blog/About the Appellate Tracker Weblog) Page. NOTICE AND AGREEMENT REGARDING E-MAILS AND CALLS/TEXT MESSAGES TO LAND-LINE AND WIRELESS TELEPHONES: By providing your contact information and confirming your subscription in response to the initial e-mail that we send you, you agree to receive e-mail messages from Severson & Werson from time-to-time and understand and agree that such messages are or may be sent by means of automated dialing technology. If you have your email forwarded to other electronic media, including text messages and cellular telephone by way of VoIP, internet, social media, or otherwise, you agree to receive my messages in that way. This may result in charges to you. Your agreement and consent also extend to any other agents, affiliates, or entities to whom our communications are forwarded. You agree that you will notify Severson & Werson in writing if you revoke this agreement and that your revocation will not be effective until you notify Severson & Werson in writing. You understand and agree that you will afford Severson & Werson a reasonable time to unsubscribe you from the website, that the ability to do so depends on Severson & Werson’s press of business and access to the weblog, and that you may still receive one or more emails or communications from weblog until we are able to unsubscribe you.

In Gallo v. Wood Ranch United States, No. B311067, 2022 Cal. App. LEXIS 652, at *3-6 (Ct. App. July 25, 2022), the Court of Appeal addressed the effect of late payment of arbitration fees under the penalties provided for by Civil Procedure Code sections 1281.97 and 1281.99, which obligate a company or business who drafts an arbitration agreement to pay… Read More

In Wynne v. Audi of Am., No. 21-cv-08518-DMR, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 131625, at *2-4 (N.D. Cal. July 25, 2022), Judge Ryu found that the CCPA, by itself, does not confer Article III standing under the SCOTUS' TransUnion decision.  The facts of the data breach were as follows: Wynne makes the following allegations in the amended complaint: Defendant Audi is a… Read More

In Richmond v. Medicredit, Inc., No. 5:21-CV-00068-KDB-DSC, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130092, at *8 (W.D.N.C. July 22, 2022), Judge Bell denied an FDCPA defendant's summary judgment motion. The Court finds that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Medicredit reported Richmond's debts as disputed to the credit reporting agencies ("CRAs"). The FDCPA protects consumers from certain… Read More

In Costa v. Dvinci Energy, Inc., Civil Action No. 21-11501-NMG, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130208, at *4-6 (D. Mass. July 22, 2022), Judge Gorton declined to strike a TCPA class action at the pleadings stage despite complaints that it is a "fail-safe" class. Dvinci contends that the proposed class is fail-safe—and thus must be struck—because it defines its membership in… Read More

In Tukin v. Halsted Financial Services, LLC, Judge Wood found no Article III standing for a Hunstein claim (of sharing a consumer's data with a vendor) where the sharing was done by way of encrypted data transfer. First, of note, Judge Wood found no "glassine window" violation for use of an "Intelligent Mail Code" on the dunning letter's envelope. Count III alleges that… Read More

In El v. Ally Bank, No. 2:22-cv-00874-APG-DJA, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 130239, at *1-5 (D. Nev. July 22, 2022), Magistrate Albregts dismissed a claim that the Court described as being based on sovereign citizen theories against a Bank. Not only do El's motions fail to state the grounds for the relief she seeks or even what relief she seeks, El's motions… Read More

In Riser v. Cent. Portfolio Control, Inc., 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 109545, Case No. 3:21-cv-05238-LK (W.D. Wash. June 21, 2022), Judge King dismissed an FCRA claim against a consumer reporting agency over the propriety of reporting a medical debt which the Plaintiff claimed that she did not owe because she was covered by Washington's Medicaid plan. Relying on the Ninth… Read More

In Soliman v. Subway Franchisee Advert. Fund Tr., Ltd., No. 3:19-cv-592 (JAM), 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 126468, at *6-8 (D. Conn. July 18, 2022), Judge Meyer disposed of the argument that Subway's text message software was an ATDS. And under Soliman's reading, the Act would probably cover much more than mass dialing. As she admits, sequential number generation is "an… Read More

On July 15, the DFPI issued proposed regulations on the scope of  debt collection licensure required by the DCLA.  The text of the proposed regulations can be found  here:  PRO-05-21-Text-DCLA-Invitation-for-Comments.-7.14.22 There are a number of significant proposed regulations for licensees, applications, or potential licensees. First, the DFPI's proposed regulations would confirm that W-2 or true employees are not required to… Read More

In Ramirez v. Volkswagen Grp. of Am., Inc., No. CV 22-00734 MWF (MRWx), 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121034 (C.D. Cal. July 8, 2022), Judge Fitzgerald remanded a lemon law case after reducing the Plaintiff’s claimed damages by unrecoverable negative equity. At the hearing, Plaintiff raised the issue of negative equity, which Defendant also addressed in the briefing, arguing that any… Read More

In Fernandez v. Progressive Mgmt. Sys., No. 3:21-cv-00841-BEN-WVG, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120329 (S.D. Cal. July 7, 2022), Judge Benitez allowed a UCL claim to proceed predicated on a Rosenthal Act violation where the customer did not allege to have paid money to the defendant. Defendant, however, is incorrect that Plaintiff must have paid EACMC monies to establish UCL standing.… Read More

In George v. Summit Credit Union, No. 21-CV-259-JPS, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 112739, at *14-21 (E.D. Wis. June 27, 2022), Judge Stadtmueller granted partial summary judgment to an FCRA Plaintiff against a furnisher, leaving for further litigation only the issue of recoverable damages. The FCRA provides that a furnisher (such as Summit) can be held liable to a consumer for… Read More

We previously reported on this case here:  https://www.severson.com/consumer-finance/district-court-cal-finds-no-fdcpa-claim-based-on-reporting-account-as-disputed-when-debtor-did-not-dispute-the-debt/ Now, again, in Samano v. LVNV Funding, LLC, No. 1:21-cv-01692-SKO, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114028, at *4-8 (E.D. Cal. June 27, 2022), Magistrate Oberta again granted a Motion to Dismiss, but again gave leave to amend, on whether credit reporting constituted debt collection activity. The purposes of the FDCPA are "to eliminate… Read More

On June 29, 2022, the CFPB issued an Advisory Opinion on collection of "convenience fees".  https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-moves-to-reduce-junk-fees-charged-by-debt-collectors/  A copy of the Advisory Opinion can be found here. Severson has been following the CFPB's evolving position(s) and regulation of "convenience fees".   CFPB-2017-S&WConvenience-Fees-Bulletin; 2018-AmericanBarAssociation-Article-on-Convnience-Fees Referring to its 2017 Compliance Bulletin, the CFPB stated: For example, in 2017, the CFPB issued a compliance bulletin… Read More

In Snyder v. Finley & Co., L.P.A., No. 21-3997, 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 16512, at *1 (6th Cir. June 15, 2022), the Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit explained how, and when, a debt collector can be found liable when losing litigation on the debt itself; i.e. does the debt collector ipso facto violate the FDCPA when it loses… Read More

In Gilbert v. TrueAccord, Case No. 21-cv-485, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111328 (N.D. Ill. June 23, 2022), Judge Alonso granted partial summary judgment to a debt collector on the consumer's claim that the debt collector violated her lawyers C&D demand by e-mailing on a debt after the lawyer had advised of the lawyer's representation in connection with another debt. Furthermore, the… Read More

In Patterson v. Med. Review Inst. of Am., LLC, No. 22-cv-00413-MMC, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111617, at *5-8 (N.D. Cal. June 23, 2022), Judge Chesney surveyed California law on the subject and dismissed a data breach case on Art. III standing grounds. First, with respect to an increased risk of fraud and identity theft, although Patterson alleges the hackers "accessed… Read More

On June 24, the FTC announced that purportedly is designed to fight deceptive advertising, crack down on bait-and-switch marketing, and put a stop to hidden add-on charges when consumers go vehicle shopping.  According to the Notice posted in the Federal Register, FTC 6.23.22 Auto Rule NPRM, the NPR purports to The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC” or “Commission”) seeks comment on… Read More

In Lynch v. Collins, No. 20 C 02477, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 106700, at *5-7 (N.D. Ill. June 15, 2022), Judge Durkin held that the Graves Amendment does not immunize employer/employee relationships, but you've actually got to have facts to support the claim. Plaintiffs argue their vicarious liability claims for negligence and loss of consortium are also outside the Graves… Read More

1 8 9 10 11 12 154