By Paul Kiel, ProPublica. Originally posted here. Republished here under a Creative Commons license. Nonprofit hospitals get big tax breaks for providing care for patients who can’t afford it. Under new IRS rules, hospital lawsuit cases must take extra steps to inform poor patients that they may qualify for financial assistance. Last month, ProPublica and… Read more
Midland Funding, a subsidiary of Encore Capital Group, is the world’s largest debt buyer and one of the most prolific users of Maryland’s District Court. It has filed tens of thousands of suits against Marylanders. But when one of those consumers, Mr. Cain, sued Midland Funding, Midland convinced the trial court and the intermediate appellate… Read more
Private debt collectors are subject to a variety of laws policing their collection of private debts. The Fair Debt Collection Practice Act (FDCPA) imposes clear and strict requirements on debt collectors – such as preventing them from shaming consumers into payment by publishing the names or calling their parents, preventing them from lying to consumers… Read more
Franz Kafka Lives. This automatic stay violation case reveals that he works at Bank of America. So says Judge Christopher M. Klein, in Sundquist v. Bank of America. What follows is a distressing story of malicious incompetence that destroyed the health of two elite athletes and cost Bank of America more than $46 million. Judge… Read more
Ocwen is amongst the largest mortgage servicers in the country. It holds mortgage debts with a face value more than $400 billion. Ocwen specializes in “default” servicing – meaning that it services loans where the consumer is behind. On April 20th & 21st, state and federal regulators took a range of legal actions against Ocwen… Read more
While the law of class actions has developed a mystique and aura of inscrutability, the concept and basic requirements are really quite simple. The idea is that one trial of a huge “class” of people is simpler, faster, and cheaper than lots of “individual” trials when the issues are the same and the damages are… Read more
Get a copy of all three credit reports from the only government sanctioned website: www.annualcreditreport.com Read more
National Check Registry and related companies were abusive debt collectors. Thanks to the FTC, they are no more. National Check Registry, all the related companies and the three individuals behind the enterprise agreed to lifetime bans on working in debt collection and to give up “virtually all of their assets” to partially satisfy an $8.3… Read more
Debt buyer and collector EOS CCA (associated with EOS Holdings, Inc., Collecto Inc. and their wholly-owned subsidiary debt buyer, US Asset Management, all of which will be called “EOS” here) bought debts from AT&T in 2012. According to the CFPB, EOS paid $35.4 million for debts with a face value of $2.3 billion, about two… Read more
The Supreme Court gave a unanimous opinion in Jesinoski v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., agreeing in substance with an amicus brief filed by five consumer and civil rights groups: National Consumer Law Center, Center for Responsible Lending, AARP, ACLU and the National Association of Consumer Advocates. This is a rare victory before the Supreme Court… Read more