The IRS has begun hiring private collectors to collect on delinquent tax obligations, and this article explains why these collectors are subject to Fair Debt Collection Practices Act requirements and remedies.

The Supreme Court’s March 29 decision in Expressions Hair Design may spark increased First Amendment challenges to consumer protection regulations. This article explains why the Court’s decision and prior precedents weigh against such challenges.

Two Supreme Court oral arguments in FDCPA cases, five Circuit Court rulings on the FDCPA and foreclosures, and another on collection of time barred debt are some of the recent FDCPA highlights described in this article.

Increasingly, consumers forced into arbitration seek to avail themselves of that process, but are frustrated by the defendant’s refusal to pay or otherwise participate in the proceeding. This article describes a state supreme court’s solution—the consumer can then go to court.

On March 2, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a 23 page Supervisory Highlights Consumer Reporting Special Edition discussing numerous problems and deficiencies that it found during its examinations at the "Big Three" nationwide consumer reporting companies (CRCs), i.e. Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion. Of even greater significance, the report sets out reforms that the...

As detailed in this article, a March CFPB report sets out serious problems uncovered by exams at the Big Three consumer reporting companies and details significant new reforms that these companies must implement to protect consumers.

With the phasing out of HAMP, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have created a new home loan modification program that is now in effect, as detailed in this article.

Subscribers can now, for their own future use, annotate text or highlight selected passages of their NCLC online treatises, and then rapidly return to those notes. This article explains these and other new NCLC online features.

2016 was an active year for changes concerning the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). This article highlights the following changes, with more detail found in NCLC’s Federal Deception Law ch. 6, as most recently updated online on January 6, 2017 (The chapter has now been updated online again on February 6, 2017, including a new January 30, 2017 Ninth Circuit decision in Van Patten v...

As detailed in this article, a defendant may waive its right to compel arbitration by refusing to pay arbitration fees, by participating in class litigation pre-certification, or by participating too long in an individual or even a related court action.

On November 10, the FTC issued a final regulation amending its Used Car Rule. This article explains the rule changes and then lists 15 ways in which a consumer can bring an action for a defective used car despite an “as is” disclaimer.

This article describes Oct. 28 Department of Education rules providing key new rights for student loan borrowers: arbitration limits, school-related defenses to loans, and strengthened closed school and false certification discharges.

The online version of NCLC’s Collection Actions treatise has added an all-new chapter 10a on representing consumers with criminal justice debt—too often overlooked, but a major problem for millions of Americans. This article describes the chapter’s highlights.

This article highlights steps to take to prepare for the end of HAMP and other Making Home Affordable programs that sunset at the end of 2016. Reference can also be made to Treasury Supplemental Directive 16-02 and 16-03.

The DC Circuit’s October 11 decision in PHH Corp. that the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is unconstitutional will have far more limited impact on the agency than one might presume, as explained in this article.

Not just the UCC anymore. As described in this article, CFPB, FTC, Treasury, NACHA, other rules are catching up to today’s novel ways payments are made to and from consumers: payroll, prepaid, gift, college, debit, Direct Express, and EBT cards, mobile wallets, P2P transfers, remittances, EFT, and much more.

A Mississippi federal court on November 7 preliminarily enjoined a new federal rule that would have banned arbitration clauses in nursing home and other long-term care contracts, as described in this updated article.

Effective October 3, Department of Defense rules limit interest rates to 36%, prohibit arbitration, and provide strong private remedies for all non-purchase money, closed end credit offered to the country’s 3 million servicemembers and their dependents, as described in this article.

Ninth Circuit’s July 20 Decision Important Step in Resolving Split Among the Courts In a comprehensive opinion in Hernandez v. Williams, Zinman & Parham PC, 2016 WL 3913445 (9th Cir. July 20, 2016), the Ninth Circuit held that “…the FDCPA unambiguously requires any debt collector—first or subsequent—to send a § 1692g(a) validation notice within five days of its first communication with a consumer...

In evaluating whether to file a court action for violations of the RESPA Reg. X loss mitigation rule, determine if the servicer evaluated any of the client’s earlier loss mitigation applications. Reg. X, 12 C.F.R. § 1024.41(i) provides that a servicer is "only required to comply with the requirements of this section for a single complete loss mitigation application for a borrower’s mortgage loan...