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Financial Services Law Insights and Observations

District Court holds debt collector’s actions not harassment or abuse under FDCPA

Courts Debt Collection FDCPA

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On January 30, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas granted a debt collector’s motion for summary judgment, finding that no reasonable jury could conclude the debt collector’s conduct gave “rise to an intent to annoy, harass, or oppress” under the FDCPA. According to the opinion, the debt collector mistakenly had assigned the plaintiff’s phone number to a debtor in its system. The collector contacted the plaintiff five times between July 2016 and May 2017, after which the plaintiff informed the collector several times that she was not the intended recipient of the calls; despite placing the plaintiff on its Do Not Call list, the collector proceeded to contact the plaintiff again. The plaintiff filed suit against the debt collector alleging violations of various state laws and the FDCPA’s prohibition on engaging in conduct to “harass, oppress, or abuse any person in connection with the collection of a debt” and from using any “unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any debt.”

The debt collector moved for summary judgment, and the court determined that no reasonable jury could conclude the conduct gave rise to a violation, noting that the actions of the collector were a “far cry from the type of conduct Congress held up as harassment or abuse” in the FDCPA. Specifically, the court concluded that calling twice after being verbally asked to stop does not give rise to an intent to annoy, abuse, or harass as Congress chose to make it a per se violation to communicate after written requests to stop, but not any cease request. The court similarly rejected plaintiff’s claim that the collector’s conduct was unfair or unconscionable under the FDCPA.