It’s official!  We have our first-ever federal court opinion evaluating the requirements of Regulation F!  Okay, maybe “evaluating” isn’t the right word.  “Reading Regulation F out loud” is more like it.

  • The Question: Does Regulation F require debt collectors to use the CFPB’s model validation notice (“MVN”) to comply with the FDCPA?
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On October 29, the CFPB published additional frequently asked questions on Regulation F, its final debt collection rule, as well as a guidance document.  The new FAQs address validation notice requirements (including for residential mortgage debts) and the guidance document deals with how to disclose the validation information on the itemization table on the model validation notice. … Continue Reading

Last week, the CFPB released a Spanish translation of the model-English language validation notice set forth in Appendix B of Regulation F.

The final debt collection rule allows a debt collector to send a validation that is completely and accurately translated into any language if the debt collector either (1) sends an English-language version in the same communication, or (2) previously provided the consumer with an English-language version in a prior communication.… Continue Reading

Last week, in Ricco v. Sentry Credit, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act does not require a written dispute to avoid an assumption by the debt collector that the debt is valid.  Declining the opportunity to be “the ‘legal last-man-standing’ among the courts of appeals,” the en banc decision ended a circuit split by overturning the contrary 1991 ruling of a Third Circuit panel in Graziano v.Continue Reading

In its proposed debt collection rules, the CFPB would allow a debt collector to satisfy the FDCPA requirement to provide the validation notice by sending the debtor an email or text message that includes a hyperlink to a secure website on which the notice is accessible, subject to a series of specific conditions set forth in the proposed rules. … Continue Reading

The CFPB (referring to itself as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection) has filed what appears to be its first amicus brief since former Director Cordray’s departure.

The amicus brief was filed in Lavallee v. Med-1 Solutions, LLC, an appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in which the issue before the court is whether the defendant sent the plaintiff a written validation notice containing the disclosures required by the FDCPA in 15 U.S.C.… Continue Reading

The Ninth Circuit has ruled that the FDCPA requirement in 15 U.S.C. §1692g(a) for “a debt collector” to send a validation notice either in “the initial communication” or “[w]ithin five days after the initial communication with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt” not only applies to the first debt collector that contacts a consumer to collect a particular debt,  but also applies to subsequent debt collectors that communicate with the consumer about the same debt.… Continue Reading