So says this blog: 2009 Credit Suit - the FACTS about Credit, FICO Scoring, Collection and Debt Settlement The link to the service is: WebRecon's FDCPA Litigant Alert Gosh, being sued for illegal collection practices is a nuisance but dunning debtors is just business. OK.
What are you talking about? ccbob--of course lawsuits are a nuisance to them. Takes time away from harassing debtors. And can end up costing money, which negatively impacts the bottom line.
It seems as though this Webrecon offering was discussed at length on InsideArm. insideARM Discussion Forum Forums - FDCPA Litigant scrub
That is a really funny article. You would think these folks would welcome "frivolous" FDCPA suits as they could recover their fees.
There's an idea, get a judgment for attorney's fees on a frivolous FDCPA suit against someone who refuses to pay the account you've been calling them about in the first place. That's all they need! To get this judgment, it would mean not settling an FDCPA case to get rid of it, it would mean taking it to conclusion. How much is that going to require them to pay upfront? Is it clearly frivolous or is there some question? Were they "baited" into doing something that isn't that terrible but would make the case not actually frivolous? The situation seems to be that CAs that try to follow the law are lumped in with those who don't care. And those that don't care seem to have a way to avoid liability most of the time. Most of the cases that Dumb Bob has read seem to focus on things that aren't really that awful, for example, "overshadowing". Meanwhile true harassment seems largely unlitigated. This is perhaps because it is difficult to prove. But Dumb Bob thinks that repeatedly calling up a single mother and yelling at her until she cries is the sort of thing that the FDCPA should be used to protect Americans from.
The number of FDCPA cases in the courts each year is likely a small one. Also, many civil cases never get to trial, but are settled before the court hearings start and end up being dismissed.
I think this is an example of natural selection. The wolves always know to pick on the weak and the slow, not the ones that will put up a fight. The one really weak spot in the FDCPA is that enforcement is left up to the victim. Ironically, if the victim knew their rights in the first place, they would most likely not be a victim.
I can't say that I've done an exhaustive or representative survey, but only in a few cases have I seen attorney's fees awarded to the plaintiff based on a frivolous suit and in the cases (2, I think) that I read, they were really beyond frivolous, almost approaching ridiculous (as in "WTH were they thinking when they filed suit?) So, what does this say? I think there's enough room for interpretation in the law and the actions of a collection agent to find something to fuss over. Especially when you figure many collection agents/JDBs don't have complete documentation of the accounts. On top of that, the burden of proof is pretty low. Because it's a civil case, you just need to prove by a preponderance of the evidence. I'd guess that in most cases if a reasonable case is made, the CA will have a tough time defending it (not that some won't try as in the recent Credigy case...talk about fighting tooth and nail!). The problem in most cases (like our sobbing single mom) is that the CAs collect the necessary evidence to defend them in a suit as a matter of course while most debtors don't. But, the percentage of FDCPA suits compared to the number of active collections is in the noise (as in infinitesimal). OTOH, one $6,000 law suit can eat up a lot of $100 collections (esp. when you figure that they might only make $20-50 on one of those collections.
As you say, documentation is the key. As long as you can have a reasonable connection between the facts and a violation of the statute, a counter that it is a frivolous suit should fail.
There's an idea, get a judgment for attorney's fees on a frivolous FDCPA suit against someone who refuses to pay the account you've been calling them about in the first place. That's all they need. Yes, this is a great idea.
