In Partners v. Zimmer the Vermont Supreme Court held that Unifiund, a large debt buyer, was unable to prove the chain of title in a collection case. Unifund claimed to have bought the right to collect a debt originally owed to Citibank. The trial court refused to admit papers said to prove the chain of… Read more
Strong bankruptcy laws are part of America’s legal heritage. They allow people who make mistakes, or are just unlucky, a chance to start over by erasing their debts. Bankruptcy is not an easy process, since it involves either “liquidation” through Chapter 7 or several years in a Chapter 13 payment plan that takes up almost… Read more
This article examines current trends in debt buyer litigation, including a review of recent regulatory actions and the impact of debt buyer lawsuits on individual consumers and on small claims courts. The article calls for a ban on the sale of consumer junk debt by banks, and for a requirement to make public the terms,… Read more
1/4/2016 – OCC Consent Order: JPMorgan agreed to pay $48 million for violating the terms of a previous 2011 OCC Consent Order related to Chase’s “deficiencies and unsafe or unsound practices in residential mortgage servicing and in Chase’s initiation and handling of foreclosure proceedings.” In the 2016 Consent Order, the OCC found that Chase had… Read more
A report by The Atlantic reveals that the Housing and Urban Development Department (HUD), has been selling large numbers of delinquent, FHA-insured mortgages. When a borrower can’t afford to pay her mortgage, the bank that owns the mortgage will make a claim on its FHA insurance. FHA pays the bank and in exchange, it becomes… Read more
An excellent November 17, 2015 New York Times editorial highlights several widespread abusive collection practices, and calls on states to update collection and garnishment laws to better protect consumers from predatory debt collectors. “For example, companies that buy up consumer debt for pennies on the dollar from creditors and then try to recover the full… Read more
Forced arbitration is a widespread problem for American consumers. Corporations bury complex terms in fine print, and then argue that consumers “agree” to arbitration in everyday contracts. But in general consumers have little understanding of what forced arbitration is or what rights they are “agreeing” to give up. Put simply, forced arbitration means: NO JUDGE,… Read more
The New York Times has published a three-part in depth series (1, 2, 3) on forced arbitration, in the wake the CFPB’s proposal to prohibit class action waivers through arbitration. The Times series covers many of the familiar problems with arbitration: the pressures on arbitrators to please the companies which select them, the denial of… Read more
On November 4, 2015, the FTC and a coalition of other law enforcement agencies announced a huge enforcement campaign against illegal debt collection practices: The Federal Trade Commission and other law enforcement authorities around the country announced the first coordinated federal-state enforcement initiative targeting deceptive and abusive debt collection practices. This nationwide crackdown encompasses 30… Read more
In May, 2015 a Missouri trial jury awarded an $82.5 million verdict against Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC (PRA). At the time, a spokesman for PRA said the verdict was “outlandish… defie[d] common sense” and that PRA “hope[d] and expecte[d]” the verdict would be set aside by the trial court. Then in September, 2015 PRA entered… Read more