PODCAST · business
The Debt Collection Drill
by John K. Rossman
Moss & Barnett is pleased to announce the first of its monthly podcast series titled "The Debt Collection Drill" featuring shareholders John Rossman and Michael Poncin providing sage tips for improving collections and compliance.
Episodes
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Legally Deleting a Credit Bureau Tradeline
In the latest episode of the Debt Collection Drill podcast series, Moss & Barnett attorneys Aylix Jensen, Michael Etmund and John Rossman provide specific guidance on the circumstances in which a collection agency may legally delete all information previously furnished to a credit reporting…
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Does Your Collection Agency Name Violate Regulation F?
Regulation F contemplates debt collectors communicating with consumers using a scripted “limited content” voicemail message which contains the business name of the debt collector, but “does not indicate that the debt collector is in the debt collection business.” While consumer advocates agree…
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Landmark Victory! Debt Collector Did Not Deceive Debtor Who Refused to Give Name
A debt collector must verify the identity of a communication recipient to ensure a right-party contact while also avoiding a disclosure about the existence of the debt to a third-party. Thus, a debt collector must, when asked, provide meaningful information about the purpose of a telephone call…
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Pandemic Causes Historic Debt Collection Law Changes
In this episode of the Debt Collection Drill podcast, Moss & Barnett attorneys discuss the recent, historic changes to the laws restricting debt collection and how agencies can comply.
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CFPB Proposes Debt Collection Rule that Congress Rejected
The CFPB’s proposed debt collection rules envision a much-needed update and modernization to many provisions in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. However, the CFPB’s proposed rules include a limit of the number of debt collection calls that may be made per week without regard to the…
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Common Sense Prevails! Seventh Circuit Affirms Consumer was not Harmed by Letter and Dismisses FDCPA case
Debt collectors defending against hyper-technical FDCPA lawsuits by consumer attorneys commonly ask the same question: “How could the consumer possibly have been harmed by this supposed violation of the FDCPA?” The question is especially poignant when the purported FDCPA violation arises from a...
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Validation Notice Lawsuits: Overlooked Ruling from Third Circuit Proves Debt Collectors are Right!
As most debt collectors know, sending any collection notice into Delaware, New Jersey or Pennsylvania (the States with Federal Courts in the Third Circuit) will likely result in an FDCPA class action lawsuit against the debt collector. Typically these lawsuits assert that the validation language...
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Should Collectors Change the Validation Notices Sent into Pennsylvania?
Debt collectors face an historic onslaught of FDCPA cases in Pennsylvania (and to a lesser extent New Jersey), all of which allege that statutory language in collection letters which tracks the FDCPA somehow violates the law. The Courts in these cases take the position that a consumer must be...
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Federal Courts Hold that Standard Validation Notice Violates FDCPA. Now What?!
Collectors frequently point to contradictory language among the FDCPA and other statutes as proof that standardized debt collection rules are needed in this industry. However, even in an industry where consumer attorneys frequently make "creative" arguments, it is rare to see a claim that the…
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New Federal Court of Appeals Rulings Favor Debt Collectors
Debt collectors were given clarity regarding two thorny FDCPA issues recently by decisions issued from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In the case of Portalatin v. Blatt, the Court held that a consumer was entitled to a single recovery of an FDCPA statutory penalty rather than multiple...
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New Consumer Strategy for Baiting FDCPA Violations And Use of Text Messages in Debt Collection.
Consumers using scripts to bait debt collectors into FDCPA violations is certainly nothing new. InsideARM has been publishing articles about this issue for years: https://www.insidearm.com/news/00006606-five-signs-that-a-debtor-is-trying-to-ent/ While the practice of consumers baiting collectors...
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COLLECTORS FINALLY WINNING FDCPA CASES: HAS THE TIDE TURNED OR IS SOMETHING LURKING?
Just a few years ago, many in the collection industry were wringing their hands in frustration: the Douglass decision on innocuous information appearing in the windows of envelopes spawned hundreds of class action lawsuits; claims regarding the tax implications of settlements, voicemail message...
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Law Changes Regarding Interest Disclosures, Validation Notices and Settlements
Consumer attorneys subjected debt collectors to a barrage of FDCPA lawsuits, especially in New York and New Jersey, on collection letters in 2017. This trend will continue, and likely accelerate, in 2018. Debt collectors hoping for relief from the Courts on the latest consumer attorney claims...
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Verbal Authorization for Recurring Payments – Ask Yourself One Question: “Do I Feel Lucky?”
Debt collectors that accept recurring payments over the phone know that Federal laws – specifically Regulation E, the Electronic Funds Transfer Act and the E-Sign Act – provide guidelines for consent and disclosures. insideARM first featured an article on those issues in January 2013:...
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New Collection Letter Lawsuits in California and New York:
Collection letters are the bane of our industry. Letters are expensive to send and - despite what a certain television pundit claims - studies prove that few consumers actually read collection letters. The CFPB, the FCC and other regulators pay little more than lip service to the urgent requests...
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Three Overlooked Traps for First Party/Early Out Servicers
First party and early-out servicing provides an enhanced customer service experience and greater responsiveness for consumers. These qualities make first party and early-out servicing beneficial for creditors as well as consumers. However, as the prevalence of this type of servicing increases,...
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Consumers Bait Collectors With New Script to Manufacture FDCPA Claims
The use of “scripts” by consumers to bait telephone debt collectors into alleged FDCPA violations is a calculated strategy dating back more than 10 years. Typically a consumer obtains such a script from a consumer attorney or from a website. The consumer will then make an inbound call to a debt...
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Debt Collectors Sued for Not Assessing Interest . . . Seriously?!?
The issue of debt collectors assessing interest on accounts was contentious and extensively litigated over the past decade. Courts, regulators and consumer advocates are uniformly opposed to debt collectors assessing interest except in specific circumstances. The Second Circuit Court of Appeals...
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Agency Fights the Good Fight (and Wins!)
Debt collection is clearly one of the most heavily regulated industries in the United States. Federal, State and local regulators place onerous, duplicative and often confusing requirements on companies seeking to collect debts. Further, when collection agencies comply with the myriad of laws…
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The Election That Changed the Collection Industry Forever
“Will the CFPB be shut down? Will the FDCPA be repealed? Can I start using my dialer again? Is the Foti decision going to get overturned? While the political pundits sort through last night’s election results, the question for our industry is how President-Elect Trump will work with the Senate…
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Should Debt Collectors Email Consumers?
The issue of whether debt collectors may email consumers is finally being given serious consideration by regulators. A prescient article written by Rozanne Andersen in 2011 is the most comprehensive document on the topic of debt collection emails. New York regulators took the next step toward...
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What Collectors Really Need to Know About the CFPB’s Proposed Rules
On July 28, 2016, the CFPB released an outline of its proposed rules regarding debt collection. The outline is the next step in the first ever rulemaking in the nearly 40 year history of the FDCPA. Attorneys John Rossman and Mike Poncin examine some of the highlights of the CFPB rulemaking…
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FDCPA Victory in Class Action Letter Case: What It Means for the Industry
Debt collection letters continue provide an expansive target for FDCPA and related lawsuits due to the panoply of Federal and State disclosure requirements for such letters. Further, the Court cases interpreting these requirements are in constant flux and new decisions sometimes contradict…
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Do Consumers Need to Show "Concrete" Injury to Sue Debt Collectors?
Do Consumers Need to Show "Concrete" Injury to Sue Debt Collectors? By John K. Rossman The Supreme Court decision in Spokeo v. Robins was expected to provide clarity to debt industry defendants facing FDCPA and related consumer lawsuits where the Plaintiffs’ allege no actual harm. Unfortunately,...
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Appellate Courts Hold Typical Collection Letters Violate FDCPA
Debt collectors and consumer advocates agree that collection letters do little (if anything) to truly inform consumers about their indebtedness. Very few consumers actually read collection letters. Further, the verbiage that debt collectors are required by law to include in each collection letter...
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Get Sued If You Do . . . Get Sued If You Don't: The Debt Collectors' Conundrum
The interpretation of certain provisions of the FDCPA by consumer attorneys, Courts and regulators contain a number of "Catch-22" scenarios where a debt collector is potentially subject to lawsuits and regulatory actions regardless of what the collector does. The latest iteration of this…
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Debt Collectors Flooded with Mass-Produced Requests for Validation
Debt collectors routinely receive requests for validation from consumers. The FDCPA provides specific guidelines and requirements for how consumers may request validation and the method in which a debt collector must respond. Recently, a small number of entities began issuing thousands of form...
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Overcoming the Two Biggest Challenges Facing the Collection Industry
The beginning of the year presents an opportunity for debt collectors to assess the status of our industry and determine what changes each company can make to address the most pressing challenges. In this episode of the Debt Collection Drill podcast, attorneys John Rossman and Mike Poncin…
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Big Mistake: Three Compliance Risks Collectors Overlook
Regulators from the CFPB and the FTC encourage the debt industry to look at past enforcement actions and other publications to determine what issues are most important to those agencies. A review of the recent enforcement actions by the CFPB and FTC, as well as other publications, reveal three...
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Check by Phone Payments Still Cause Legal Headaches For Debt Collectors
Confusion and threats of class action lawsuits continue to plague the debt industry regarding the appropriate method for accepting recurring check payments by phone or via a website. Specifically, issues arise regarding the type of consent that a consumer must give to authorize recurring payments...
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Radical State Law Changes Constrict Collections in New York, Illinois and Maine
State legislatures frequently tweak debt collection laws, sometimes annually. These changes in the law often require changes to debt collection letters and processes by the debt industry. This year was marked by a number of legislatures making wholesale changes to the debt collection laws of…
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WHAT DEBT COLLECTORS REALLY NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FCC ORDER AND THE TCPA.
The recent order issued by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regarding the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) encompasses 138 pages (including hundreds of footnotes) and created an instant tidal wave of questions, comments and uncertainty about the use of telephone technology to...
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Is It Illegal to Charge Credit Card Convenience Fees? By John K. Rossman
There is a cost associated with a business accepting payments via credit card. Depending on the type of credit card, bank and payment processor used by the business, that cost can vary for each transaction. However, most consumers expect and demand that businesses will accept credit cards as a...
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Crucial Collection Law Update: Common Sense Prevails in West Virginia?
The West Virginia Consumer Credit Protection Act, and how it was interpreted by the consumer attorneys in West Virginia, was the primary reason that State had previously been described as one of the most treacherous places in the country for debt collectors. Lawsuits were routinely commenced West...
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HAS YOUR COMPANY BEEN HIT WITH MULTIPLE FDCPA OR TCPA CLAIMS?
Collection agencies, debt buyers and credit granters are often under siege, forced to defend against identical claims on multiple jurisdictional fronts, regardless of whether the claims are on behalf of an individual or a putative class. One strategy for consolidating the defense of identical...
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COURT EXPANDS “LEAST SOPHISTICATED” STANDARD TO INCLUDE ATTORNEYS?
The concept that a debt collection communication must be viewed through the lens of the least sophisticated consumer is a fairly established tenet of FDCPA law. While the application of this standard is often the subject of litigation, its premise is that a debt collection communication violates...
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Is There a “Silver Bullet” for Defeating FDCPA and TCPA Claims?
Collection agencies and debt buyers continue to be inundated with FDCPA and TCPA lawsuits, many of which drag on through months and even years of expensive discovery and motion practice. What if there existed a single argument that could be made in many consumer cases that would successfully…
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New York Debt Regulations Revised Into Chaos
The New York State Department of Financial Services announced recently revised debt collection regulations, culminating more than a year of proposals and comments. While the new regulations provide clarity and consumer protection in some areas, they are fraught with ambiguities and overlap…
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Defend Claims That Your Envelopes Violate the FDCPA!
The Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled recently in Douglass v. Convergent that a collector’s envelope, which disclosed a collection agency account number through the window in the envelope, raised privacy concerns and violated the FDCPA. The Court in Douglass held that the collection agency...
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NEW FDCPA REQUIREMENT FOR DEBT VERIFICATION: IS THERE MORE TO THE STORY?
The enactment of the FDCPA in 1977 began long-standing debate regarding what information a debt collector must produce to a consumer in response to a request for validation. The FDCPA itself is vague, stating that after receiving a request for validation, “the debt collector shall cease…
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Can Debt Collectors Legally Charge Interest?
Numerous recent FDCPA lawsuits challenge the ability of debt collectors to assess interest to accounts. These cases focus on a number of factors including whether collection letters need to disclose the accrual of interest and also interest on purchased accounts. Most recently, a California Court...
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CFPB Civil Investigative Demands Scorch Debt Industry: What Your Company Needs to Know Today
The CFPB recently began a more aggressive approach to the debt industry, bypassing the larger market participant examination process and issuing Civil Investigative Demands (CIDs) to a number of debt collectors directed at specific complaints and alleged practices. In a special episode of the…
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Avoid the Three Biggest Threats Facing the Debt Industry
In this episode of the Debt Collection Drill, attorneys John Rossman and Mike Poncin discuss specific tactics to avoid issues involving CFPB complaints, leaving messages and concerns regarding the TCPA.
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How Collectors Win FDCPA Cases Without Going to Court
Most FDCPA lawsuits are resolved without a Court ruling on the merits. Further, debt collectors win a surprising number of these out-of-Court resolutions, obtaining dismissals of the cases without paying anything to settle. In this episode of the Debt Collection Drill, Attorneys John Rossman and...
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Litigation Alert: Recent Court Rulings Force Collectors to Revisit Validation Language
Most consumers advocates and collectors agree that the validation language contained in the FDCP A is stilted and obscure. However, the validation notice is a foundational document of the debt collection process. Two recent Court of Appeals cases examined questions about the wording of specific...
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Landmark FDCPA Victories Finally Limit "Least Sophisticated Consumer" Standard
Two substantial debt collector victories in FDCPA cases at the end of 2013 – both of which were won by Moss & Barnett attorneys – may set the tone for many lawsuits in 2014, especially as they relate to the "least sophisticated consumer" standard. In both cases, Courts rejected claims by the...
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Strict Debt Laws Harm Consumers, Reduce Credit Access According to Government Study
Debt collectors will long remember 2013 as a watershed year for the regulation of our industry. The CFPB issued its Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking while continuing on-site examinations of debt collector larger market participants, enforcement actions and publishing data from its complaint...
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Three CFPB Changes to the FDCPA That Will Redefine Debt Collection
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is moving forward with plans to overhaul the FDCPA, focusing specifically on debt documentation, call frequency and modernizing the law to account for technology changes since the FDCPA was enacted in 1977. In this episode of The Debt Collection Drill,...
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"Precollect" Causes FDCPA Heartburn for Collectors and Creditors!
Creditors seeking to reduce collection costs often ask collection agencies for "precollect" efforts at a discount from normal contingent fee rates. Some collection agencies provide lettering services – with all calls and payments directed to the creditor – at a flat rate per letter or account....
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CFPB Authorizes Some Collections on Time-Barred Accounts Without a Disclosure
With the CFPB scheduled to commence exercise of its rule making authority later this year, many collection industry experts were surprised by a joint amicus brief filed by the FTC and the CFPB stating that ". . . in some circumstances, 'a debt collector may seek voluntary payment of a time-barred...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Debt Collection Drill have?
The Debt Collection Drill currently has 83 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Debt Collection Drill about?
Moss & Barnett is pleased to announce the first of its monthly podcast series titled "The Debt Collection Drill" featuring shareholders John Rossman and Michael Poncin providing sage tips for improving collections and compliance.
How often does The Debt Collection Drill release new episodes?
The Debt Collection Drill has 83 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Debt Collection Drill?
You can listen to The Debt Collection Drill on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Debt Collection Drill?
The Debt Collection Drill is created and hosted by John K. Rossman.
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