Skip to main content

Search

Consumer Credit Regulation: R.I. Gen. Laws §§ 6-26.1-1 to 6-26.1-13 (Credit Card Lenders).

What types of lenders it applies to (e.g., banks vs. non-banks): Applies to any lending institution or licensee under § 19-14-1 that offers or extends credit in the form of a credit card transaction. “Lending institution” is defined by § 19-9-1 as any regulated institution and any person that makes loans of money or negotiates the lending of money for another in any state or jurisdiction. § 19-14-1 provides for licensure of, inter alia, lenders making small loans, check cashers, debt-management service providers, and mortgage loan originators.

Consumer Bankruptcy Law and Practice: 8.4 The Meeting of Creditors

8.4.1 Preparation

In many a routine chapter 7 bankruptcy, the only event of any real importance between filing and discharge is the meeting of creditors, sometimes colloquially called the “first meeting of creditors” or the “section 341(a) meeting” in honor of the relevant statutory provision. While it may pose occasional problems, this proceeding is usually routine and uneventful.

Consumer Bankruptcy Law and Practice: 7.3.12 The Chapter 13 Plan

7.3.12.1 Generally

The most important document filed in a chapter 13 case is usually the debtor’s proposed plan. This plan, which only the debtor can propose, sets out how the debtor wishes to reorganize their financial situation. Its purpose, then, is to make clear how the debtor desires payments and distributions to be made in the case. The plan may be modified as of right before confirmation and also, with the court’s permission, after confirmation in certain circumstances.242

Fair Debt Collection: 14.3.2.9.3 Liability of creditors for debt collectors’ violations; corporate officers and individuals

Creditors are liable for improper autodialed or prerecorded calls to cell phones by their debt collectors.203 In a 2008 ruling, the FCC determined that: “[A] creditor on whose behalf an autodialed or prerecorded message call is made to a wireless number bears the responsibility for any violation of the Commission’s rules. Calls placed by a third party collector on behalf of that creditor are treated as if the creditor itself placed the call.”204

Fair Debt Collection: 14.3.3.2 Spoofing and The Truth in Caller ID Act

The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009227 amended the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to make it unlawful for any person to transmit misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value. The FCC has adopted Truth in Caller ID Act regulations,228 which closely follow the requirements of the Act itself.

Credit Discrimination: 11.5.3.2.2a Limits on arbitration in schools’ program participation agreements

Effective July 1, 2023, Department of Education (the Department) regulations governing schools’ program participation agreements will prohibit institutions that participate in the Federal Direct Loan Program from “requiring borrowers to agree to mandatory pre-dispute arbitration agreements or waiver of class action lawsuits.”214 Specifically, schools that wish to participate in the Direct Loan Program must agree that they will not:

Credit Discrimination: 12.4.1.5.2 Showing harm to the municipality and causation

In City of Miami v. Bank of America Corp.,80 the Eleventh Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of the City’s discriminatory predatory lending claims against Bank of America. The City’s complaint focused on the bank’s practice of directing predatory loan terms towards Black and Latinx borrowers in Miami from 2004 to 2012. The City alleged both intentional discrimination and a discriminatory impact from the bank’s practices.

Credit Discrimination: 12.4.1.5.3 Establishing proximate cause in the wake of City of Miami—circuit court rulings

On remand, the Eleventh Circuit duly examined whether “some direct relation” existed between Wells Fargo’s intentional policies and the economic harm that the City of Miami alleged.89 With respect to the claim that the lending policies caused property values to drop, thereby leading to diminished tax revenues, the Eleventh Circuit held that the City’s complaint met the Supreme Court’s proximate cause standard.90 The bank’s practices caused an injury to the City that was quantifiable and dist

Repossessions: 12.9.3.4a State Statutes Other than the UCC

State law other than the UCC may provide additional protections for co-signers. For example, an Illinois statute requires a notice be sent to the co-signor of the primary obligor’s delinquency, and fifteen days must elapse before the creditor can report negatively on the co-signer to a consumer reporting agency.609

Fair Debt Collection: B.2.4 Debt Collection Practices (Regulation F); Time-Barred Debt

The CFPB issued an advisory opinion clarifying that entities that qualify as debt collectors under the FDCPA that bring or threaten to bring state court foreclosure actions on time-barred mortgage debt may violate Regulation F § 1006.26—even if the debt collector did not know that the debt was time barred. See 88 Fed. Reg. 26,475 (May 1, 2023).

Fair Debt Collection: 11.15.11b Redressability

The third requirement for Article III standing articulated by Supreme Court decisions is that the plaintiff’s injury must be one “that is likely to be redressed by a favorable judicial decision.”2111 An unpublished Seventh Circuit opinion holds that an FDCPA plaintiff’s failure to pray explicitly for actual damages did not mean that her injury, which included a modest expenditure for postage, was not redressable by a favorable decision.

Fair Debt Collection: 11.15.12a Pleading

Before filing an FDCPA complaint, it is important to interview the consumer carefully to identify any harm the consumer suffered beyond experiencing the violation.2126 A very small loss may be sufficient to establish standing.2127