UDAAP Council Weekly UDAAP Standards Report – 11/19/2014

Every week, courts around the United States issue decisions addressing aspects of civil UDAAP claims.

In an effort to illuminate the UDAAP standards, below is a sampling of some of this week’s UDAAP decisions on the meaning of unfair, deceptive, and abusive. 

Deceptive

• A debt collector that failed to identify itself in voice messages left for the plaintiff violated Section 1692e(11) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, even though the plaintiff allegedly was aware that the calls were from a debt collector. Erez v. Steur, United States District Court for the Western District of Washington.
• A debtor stated a claim under Section 1692e of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when she alleged that a debt collector sent her letters indicating that she should send payments by mail when the collector was already debiting payments form her account, since such statements could confuse consumers. Coover v. Immediate Credit Recovery, Inc., United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
• A debtor was entitled to a judgment under Sections 1692c, 1692e and 1692g of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act where she alleged a debt collector contacted her employer and told it about her debt, threatened to serve her at work despite the fact that it had not filed a lawsuit against her, and failed to provide verification of her debt upon request. Lehr v. Secure Capital Management, Inc., United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
• A borrower stated a claim for deceptive practices under the Texas Debt Collection Practices Act based on her mortgage lender’s refusal to stop a foreclosure while her loan modification application was pending, where she alleged that the lender initially told her she was in a loan modification program and then later represented she was not. Sanchez v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., United States District Court for the Western District of Texas.

Note that this Weekly UDAAP Standards Report serves to highlight only some of the many weekly developments in the law around these standards.

Please feel free to contact me for more information or to discuss these cases or any other UDAAP developments.