Following the Eleventh Circuit's decision last year in Crawford v. LVNV Funding, LLC, the filing of a proof of claim on a time-barred debt in a bankruptcy case pending in the Eleventh Circuit's jurisdiction violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. § § 1692-1692p ("FDCPA"). But as the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Alabama recently made clear in Gurganus v. Recovery Management Systems Corp. (In re Gurganus), No. 7:14-ap-70054-BGC, 2015 WL 65089 (Bankr. N.D. Ala. Jan. 5, 2015), before debtors start hauling creditors into court for something ...
Imagine your company or client was sued for an alleged violation of the Florida Consumer Collections Practices Act ("FCCPA"). The plaintiff has an outstanding debt that is greater than the damages sought in the FCCPA action. Consequently, you want to know if you can counterclaim to setoff (or "offset") the damages sought in the FCCPA lawsuit from the underlying debt. Though the Eleventh Circuit does not provide steadfast answers, it sheds some light on the topic, albeit in a bankruptcy context. In Brook v. Chase Bank USA, N.A., 566 F. App'x 787 (11th Cir. 2014), the Eleventh Circuit ...