Consumer Finance

In Blackmon v. Ad Astra Recovery Servs., Case No.: 20-CV-800-CAB-JLB, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 75878 (S.D. Cal. April 20, 2021), Judge Bencivengo granted summary judgment to a debt collector who was alleged to have committed errors in connection with handling a purported claim of identity theft.   After the debtor failed to submit an affidavit of theft or police report but then… Read More

The CFPB issued an interim final rule that is effective May 3, 2021 to address certain debt collector conduct associated with an eviction moratorium issued by the CDC. The rule provides that debt collectors, as defined in the FDCPA, are required to provide written notice to certain consumers of their protections under the CDC Order’s eviction moratorium. Also, debt collectors… Read More

In Franklin v. Navient, Inc., No. 1:17-cv-1640-SB, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74265, at *1-2 (D. Del. Apr. 19, 2021), Judge Bibas allowed a TCPA claim to proceed. "[J]udicial decisionmaking" after the fact "necessarily involves some peril to individual expectations." Rivers v. Roadway Express, Inc., 511 U.S. 298, 312 (1994). Na-vient may have to learn that the hard way. It robocalled Ricky… Read More

In Mesa Labs. v. Fed. Ins. Co., No. 20-1983, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 11365, at *1 (7th Cir. Apr. 20, 2021), the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found no insurance coverage for TCPA blast-fax claims.  The Court of Appeals framed the question as follows: The question in this case is straightforward: When an insurance policy provides that the… Read More

In Brogan v. Fred Beans Chevrolet, No. 20-1944, 2021 U.S. App. LEXIS 11183, at *1-2 (3d Cir. Apr. 19, 2021), the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit found no TILA or FCRA violation by a car dealer in attempting to get a customer's car financed.  The facts were as follows: In 2017, Brogan bought a used Subaru from Fred… Read More

In In re Brinker Data Incident Litig., No. 3:18-cv-686-TJC-MCR, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71965, at *3-5 (M.D. Fla. Apr. 14, 2021), Judge Corrigan certified a class in a data breach class action.  The facts were as follows: The Court has detailed the facts of this case in prior orders (Docs. 65, 92, 122), but several new facts have come to… Read More

Although on April 7, 2021, the CFPB proposed to delay the October 2020 and December 2020 Debt Collection Rules by 60 days, on April 16, 2021, the CFPB moved forward with its earlier stated plan to update the small entity compliance guide to include the December 2020 Debt Collection Rule. The update guide is available here. As discussed earlier with… Read More

In Smith v. Stewart, Zlimen & Jungers, Ltd. (8th Cir. 2021) 990 F.3d 640, the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of consolidation actions under the FDCPA against the same debt collection law firm and declined to hold that a FDCPA claim is stated ipso facto because the debt collector lost the underlying collection action. In underlying collections actions… Read More

The FTC today issued a press release on whether the FTC Holder Rule applies to large transactions. The staff of the Federal Trade Commission has issued a note correcting previous staff guidelines on the FTC’s Trade Regulation Rule Concerning Preservation of Consumers’ Claims and Defenses—commonly known as the Holder Rule. The Holder Rule protects consumers who enter into credit contracts… Read More

In Auto. Fin. Corp. v. DZ Motors, LLC, Civil Action No. 16-7955 (MAS) (DEA), 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69915 (D.N.J. Apr. 9, 2021), Judge Shipp reached different conclusions on a lien priority dispute between a Floorplan lender and credit union with respect to 2 luxury vehicles “purchased” by an SoT dealer’s manager. With respect to the Bentley, the Court found… Read More