Debt Collection

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As required by amendments to the FDCPA made by Section 1089 of Dodd Frank, the CFPB recently released its annual report to Congress on FDCPA compliance. We note below information provided by the bureau about the complaints it received in 2024, the results of examinations publicly reported in 2024, and enforcement actions by other agencies. … Continue Reading

The trade group representing debt collection agencies, creditors, debt buyers, collection attorneys, and debt collection industry service providers has filed suit challenging the Colorado law that bans the inclusion of medical debts in credit reports.

ACA International is joined by one of its members, the Fresno Credit Bureau, in the suit against Martha Fulford, the Colorado Uniform Consumer Credit Code Administrator. … Continue Reading

A debt collector company, Blackstone Legal, its associated companies and its owners, Ryan and Mitchell Evans, are facing a permanent ban from the debt collection business as a result of an FTC lawsuit charging that they deceived and harassed consumers to collect debts the consumers did not owe.

In February 2025, the FTC charged Blackstone Legal and its associated companies and owners with convincing consumers to pay fake debts.… Continue Reading

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently signed legislation making it clear that debt collection emails sent between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. do not violate Florida law.

Those are the hours that debt collectors are prohibited from communicating with debtors. Now, emails are excluded from that prohibition.

“The bill includes preamble clauses that acknowledge emails were not commonly used or explicitly contemplated when the Florida Legislature prohibited the practice of communicating with a consumer at night,” a Florida Legislature memo explaining the bill states.… Continue Reading

Alleging that Global Circulation, Inc. (GCI) threatened consumers with jail time, lawsuits, and wage garnishments to pressure them into paying debts they did not owe, the FTC entered into a stipulated order with GCI and its owner, Kenneth Redon III, to permanently ban them from the debt collection industry.

The defendants were also enjoined from making misrepresentations to consumer about legal obligations, making false statements to obtain payment information, and impersonating other businesses.… Continue Reading

The CFPB says it wants to scrap a Biden Administration rule that prohibits credit reporting agencies from including medical debts on credit reports, one of many Biden era rules that the Trump Administration has sought to nullify.

The rule had been scheduled to take effect in March, but U.S. District Judge Sean Jordan of the Eastern District of Texas, had issued a 90-day stay.… Continue Reading

A federal judge has ordered debt collector, Global Circulation Inc. (GCI) to temporarily halt operations, following an FTC complaint that alleged GCI tricked consumers into paying more than $7.6 million in bogus debt by threatening them with jail time, harassing their family members, and taking other unlawful actions.

U.S. District Judge Eleanor S.… Continue Reading

The most frequent consumer debt collection complaints filed with the CFPB in 2023 were attempts to collect debts that actually were not owed, the bureau said in its annual Fair Debt Collection Practices Act report.

The CFPB said that those complaints amounted to 53% of the debt collection complaints filed with the bureau in 2023.… Continue Reading

A Pennsylvania federal judge has imposed sanctions and lambasted a law firm and its attorneys for having employees write falsified letters on behalf of clients involved in debt collection disputes.

Attorneys Travis Andrew Gordon, and Joshua P. Ward, and their firm, J.P. Ward & Associates, LLC, filed two suits suit on behalf of clients disputing debts.… Continue Reading

California frequently is in the vanguard of consumer financial issues and legislation, foreshadowing trends that may spread to other states. Today’s episode, during which we explore important hot topics and recent developments in California consumer finance law, is hosted by Ballard Spahr partner Melanie Vartabedian, and features Partners Michael Guerrero and Joel Tasca, and Of Counsel John Kimble.… Continue Reading