FDCPA (Fed & State)

In Nelson v. Midland Credit Management, Inc., 2016 WL 3672073, at *2 (8th Cir. 2016), the Court of Appeals for the Eight Circuit disagreed with the 11th Circuit's Crawford decision on the actionability under the FDCPA of filing time-barred proofs of claim. Nelson urges this court to follow the Eleventh Circuit and extend to bankruptcy claims the rule against actual… Read More

In Rodriquez v. Law Office of Robert King, --- F.Supp.3d ----, 2016 WL 3638119 (C.D. Cal. 2016), Judge Otero found that collections communications made in the course of a state law UD action were not protected by the litigation privilege. As a threshold matter, Defendants argue that, if the FDCPA or Rosenthal Act applied, the eviction notice would be subject to… Read More

In Church v. Accretive Health, Inc., here, the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit held that collection on a debt that was not in default at the time of the assignment does not trigger the FDCPA. Thus, if the debt at issue was not in default at the time it was obtained by a third party agency, the agency’s… Read More

In Ellis v. Phillips and Cohen Associates, Ltd., 2016 WL 3566981, at *3-5 (N.D.Cal., 2016), Judge Davila found a triable issue of material fact as to whether a debt incurred by Plaintiff's corporation, for which she denied responsibility, was a "commercial" debt under the FDCPA. As this court previously observed when addressing Defendant's motion to dismiss, a “consumer debt” qualifying… Read More

In Garcia v. CreditorS Specialty Service, Inc., 2016 WL 3345459, at *1 (N.D.Cal., 2016), Judge Freeman allowed a glassine window case to proceed past the pleadings stage. Visible on the face of the envelope was Defendant CSS's name, its return address, and a “large red dollar sign logo,” id. at ¶ 21; Exh. 1 to SAC at 2, ECF 74-1,… Read More

In Campbell v. American Recovery Services Incorporated, 2016 WL 3219866, at *3 (C.D.Cal., 2016), Judge Wright dismissed an FDCPA grounded in the contention that a collection letter failed to adequately identify the creditor. Section 1692g(a) of the FDCPA provides that within five days after the initial communication with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt, a debt… Read More

In Lyons v. Michael & Associates, 2016 WL 3192623 (9th Cir. 2016), the Court of Appeals applied the discovery rule to an FDCPA case. Deborah Lyons appeals the district court's dismissal of her case against Lina Michaels and Michael & Associates on the ground that it was time-barred. Lyons alleges that the defendants are debt collectors who violated the Fair Debt… Read More

In Datta v. Asset Recovery Solutions, LLC, 2016 WL 3163142, at *5-10 (N.D.Cal., 2016), Judge Koh granted summary judgment to a debt collector who was sued under the Third Circuit's glassine window theory in Douglass.   Notably, district courts in both the Central and Southern Districts of California have adopted the benign language exception. In Masuda v. Thomas Richards & Co.,… Read More

In Johnson v. Midland Funding, LLC, 2016 WL 2996372, at *1 (C.A.11 (Ala.), 2016), the Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit affirmed its previous ruling in Crawford -- namely, that the FDCPA prohibits a debt collector from filing proofs of claim for time barred debts. Under the Bankruptcy Code (“Code”), a “creditor ... may file a proof of claim” in a… Read More

In Sykes v. Mel Harris & Assoc., Inc., 2016 WL 3030156 (S.D.N.Y., 2016), Judge Chin affirmed a $60M class action settlement. In this class action, Plaintiffs allege that Defendants -- a debt-buying company, a law firm, a process service company, and affiliated entities and individuals -- engaged in abusive debt collection practices to obtain default judgments against hundreds of thousands of… Read More

In St. John v. Cach, LLC, 2016 WL 2909195, at *2-3 (C.A.7 (Ill.),2016), the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a debt collector who files lawsuits hoping for settlement or default judgment does not violate the FDCPA by dismissing contested actions. The plaintiffs' principal argument on appeal is both novel and straightforward. They begin by asserting that… Read More

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/13-1339_f2q3.pdf Read More

 In Lindblom v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc., 2016 WL 2625925, at *3-7 (E.D.Cal., 2016), Chief Judge O'Neill allowed Plaintiff's Rosenthal Act claim to proceed past the pleading stage.Plaintiff made payments on the loan by phone and online through Western Union's “Speedpay” service. To do so, Plaintiff was required to pay a fee to Western Union.   Plaintiff alleges Western Union then remitted… Read More

In Chiba v. Bayview Loan Servicing, Inc., 2016 WL 2593979, at *3-4 (S.D.Cal., 2016), Judge Benitez granted summary judgment to a debt collector on the FDCPA Plaintiff's claim of improper debt validation. Plaintiff argues that she disputed the debt and requested validation from Bayview as early as November 14, 2012, yet she never received validation. She argues that because Bayview sent… Read More

In Harper v. The Law Office of Harris & Zide, LLP, 2016 WL 2344194, at *5 (N.D.Cal., 2016), Judge Gilliam certified an FDCPA class, despite the impact of the statutory cap on class certification.  Plaintiffs alleged that Defendant, acting to collect debts from the putative class on behalf of BOA, failed to provide the exact disclosure required by 15 U.S.C. §… Read More

In Foster v. Allianceone Receivables Management, Inc., 2016 WL 1719824, at *2 (N.D.Ill., 2016), Judge Farrah denied a motion to dismiss by a debt collector who referenced IRS charge-off rules for compromised debt.  Plaintiff incurred a debt from Capital One Bank (USA).   Defendant sent Plaintiff a single collection letter on or about March 9, 2015, advising that its client, Capital… Read More

In Luther v. Convergent Outsourcing, Inc., 2016 WL 1698396, at *6 (E.D.Mich., 2016), Judge Cohn certified an FDCPA class action, finding that the small class recovery was no impediment to class certification. A class action is superior “[w]here it is not economically feasible to obtain relief within the traditional framework of a multiplicity of small individual suits for damages, aggrieved… Read More

In Yu v. Design Learned, Inc., 2016 WL 1621704, at *5 (N.D.Cal., 2016), Judge Beeler dismissed an FDCPA claim because the Plaintiff did not plead that the debt was for consumer use. First, he does not allege that the debt was for personal, family, or household purposes. See 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(5). See also Bloom v. I.C. Systems, Inc., 972… Read More

In Janetos v. Fulton Friedman & Gullace, LLP, 2016 WL 1382174, at *4-5 (7th Cir. 2016), the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a debt collection law firm failed to clearly identify the creditor in its debt collection validation letter and, accordingly, the Plaintiff need not demonstrate materiality by extrinsic evidence. It is true that for claims… Read More

In Hall v. Phenix Investigations, Inc., 2016 WL 1238602, at *2-3 (5th Cir. 2016), a Law Firm hired private eyes to obtain information on a litigant in a commercial lease dispute, which the Law Firm used against the litigant in the litigation.  The litigant sued, alleging that the information obtained by the private eye was a "consumer report" under FCRA, and litigation… Read More