Debt Collection

Debt Collection Goes Hollywood with Brad Pitt as Director

12/04/12

At long last, debt collection goes Hollywood! Brad Pitt's productio company Plan B and HBO are developing what looks like a new TV series called "Paper," a drama inspired by Jake Halpern's essay "Pay Up" featured in the New Yorker.

[more]

You've sunk my battleship! And seized my carrier...

11/11/12

There is a widely-held view that sovereign bonds don't contain the optimal terms but are slow to incorporate better ones. Right or wrong, that view has prompted many government-sponsored initiatives to reform bond contracts, such as the current plan to mandate the use of standardized collective action clauses in all euro area government bonds.

[more]

"A rifle doesn't scare me. But we expected the Argentines to act professionally..."

11/11/12

In my last post, I said that the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit had interpreted the pari passu clause in Argentina's bonds as a promise to forego a century's worth of restructuring practices. The district judge still needs to clarify the injunction enforcing that promise.

[more]

MyConsumerTips.info

10/23/12
I have been working for a few years in developing and creating a consumer outreach website at MyConsumerTips.info.  The site is purely non-profit and has no sponsors or advertisers. It aims to simply provide consumers with “consumer tips” that change each day, independent summaries regarding debt-related and other consumer rights, quizzes and polls regarding such issues, and other consumer protection resources. It is user-friendly and interactive.
[more]

Learn How to Defeat Debt Collection cases Involving Junk-Debt-Buyers and Other Robo-Signers

08/14/12

Professor Peter Holland (U Maryland Law) has written a fantastic paper explaining in great detail how to defend against a debt-buyer-lawsuit, and possibly recover for Fair Debt Collection Practices Violations as well.

[more]

A Question Answered

07/31/12

Back in April, I posted about Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson investigating allegations that Accretive Health Care aggressively collected debts from hospital patients. These allegations included claims that Accreive was obtaining payments from people in emergency rooms and from their hospital bedsides.

[more]

When Serving Jail Time for Unpaid Debts Becomes a Debt Spiral

07/31/12

Tell me.  Are we allowed to do anything we like to those with the least power and money in our society? Are there no limits? We know that in some states, private actors have been permitted to charge 500-1,000% for loans, but what about public actors? Can you think of any debtor-credit practices that rise to the level of human right violations? This is question Chrystin Ondersma (Rutgers Newark School of Law) and I have been asking ourselves in connection with a project on which we are working.

[more]

News Flash: It is Illegal for Debt Collectors to Stalk Debtors on Facebook or Threaten to Kill Their Dogs

06/28/12

Do any of you read creditcards.com? It is a great source of info on various topics, not just credit cards. Today’s story featured three debt collection horror tales, as well as a state of the nation of nasty collection efforts. According to the story, in 2011, the FTC received 180,000 complaints about debt collectors, an increase of over 40,000 from 2010.

[more]

Storage Wars and the Credit Practices Rule

05/15/12

A few times I have caught Storage Wars, a television show on A&E. When storage units customers do not pay their fees, the contents are auctioned off by the storage unit company. The show follows professional treasure hunters who bid at these auctions. The catch is that the treasure hunters are purchasing the unit without full knowledge of the unit's contents.

[more]

Affidavits Are Not a Substitute for Evidence of Debt Ownership

05/07/12

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has issued a decision that highlights the problems facing credit card debt collectors in a post-robosigning world (see here and here).

[more]