The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

"The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is an extraordinarily broad statute" and must be construed accordingly. Frey v. Gangwish, 970 F.2d 1516, 1521 (6th Cir. 1992); see also Currier v. First Resolution Inv. Corp., 762 F.3d 529, 533 (6th Cir. 2014); Brown v. Card Serv. Ctr., 464 F.3d 450, 453 (3d Cir. 2006) ("Because the FDCPA is a remedial statute, . . . we construe its language broadly, so as to effect its purpose."). The FDCPA is a strict-liability statute: A plaintiff does not need to prove knowledge or intent, see, e.g., McCollough v. Johnson, Rodenburg & Lauinger, LLC, 637 F.3d 939, 952 (9th Cir. 2011), and does not have to have suffered actual damages, see, e.g., Kistner v. Law Offices of Michael P. Margelefsky, LLC, 518 F.3d 433, 437 (6th Cir. 2008). Structured as such, the FDCPA functions both to protect the individual debtor and advance the declared federal interest in "eliminat[ing] abusive debt collection practices." 15 U.S.C. § 1692(e); see also Tolentino v. Friedman, 46 F.3d 645, 652 (7th Cir. 1995). Strict liability places the risk of penalties on the debt collector that engages in activities which are not entirely lawful, rather than exposing consumers to unlawful debt-collector behavior without a possibility for relief. Cf. Guido Calabresi & Jon T. Hirschoff, Toward a Test for Strict Liability in Torts, 81 Yale L.J. 1055, 1060 (1972). By allowing a prevailing plaintiff to recover attorneys' fees, Congress further placed the cost of enforcing the FDCPA squarely on the group that could most easily ensure that the Act is not violated—the debt collectors themselves. The FDCPA protects both consumers and honest and ethical debt collectors who might otherwise be impelled to adopt their competitors' more profitable bad practices to avoid being "completely disadvantaged." 15 U.S.C. § 1692(e). Stratton v. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, (6th Cir. 2014)

The FDCPA does not define an "unfair or unconscionable" practice under § 1692f, but, with the caveat that it is not limiting the general application of the term, it sets forth a non-exhaustive list of conduct that rises to that level. See also Glazer v. Chase Home Fin. LLC, 704 F.3d 453, 461-62 (6th Cir. 2013); Limited, Inc. v. C.I.R., 286 F.3d 324, 332 (6th Cir. 2002) . . . The listed conduct includes acceptance or solicitation of a postdated check absent certain circumstances, charging any person for communications by concealing the true purpose of the communication, taking or threatening to take an action to dispossess or disable property when there is no present right in the property, communicating with a consumer about a debt via postcard, or sending mail with any symbol other than the debt collector's address and non-identifying business name. 15 U.S.C. § 1692f. The term also includes the collection of any amount not expressly authorized by the debt agreement or by law. 15 U.S.C. § 1692f(1). Other actions that courts have determined to be potentially "unfair" under § 1692f include attaching law-firm generated documents resembling credit card statements to a state collection complaint, Hartman v. Great Seneca Fin. Corp., 569 F.3d 606, 610, 614 (6th Cir. 2009), sending a collection letter that questioned the debtor's honesty and good intentions, McMillan v. Collection Prof'l, Inc., 455 F.3d 754, 765 (7th Cir. 2006), filing for a writ of garnishment against a debtor who was current in payments, Fox v. Citicorp Credit Servs., Inc., 15 F.3d 1507, 1517 (9th Cir. 1994), and collecting 33% of a debt balance as a collection fee, Bradley v. Franklin Collection Servs., 739 F.3d 606, 610 (11th Cir. 2014). Currier v. First Resolution Inv. Corp., (6th Cir. 2014)

THIS CASEBOOK contains a selection of 28 U. S. Court of Appeals decisions that analyze and interpret provisions of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The selection of decisions spans from January 2013 to the date of publication.