On March 27, 2020, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (the “CARES Act” or the “Act”) was passed in an effort to provide financial stability and relief in response to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. Amongst other types of aid, the CARES Act provides immediate relief to obligors of certain student loans. See Pub. L. No. 116-136 § 3513 (March 27, 2020). That relief, however, applies only to federal student loans which now include the vast majority of the nation’s student loan debt. But, there remain millions of other commercially-held and private student ...
Among a myriad of disruptions to the economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, mortgage lenders and servicers are working to adapt to new moratoriums and regulations affecting residential mortgage loans.
First, pursuant to a March 18, 2020 order by the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (“CARES Act”) signed into law by President Trump, servicers of federally-backed mortgage loans are prohibited from initiating any judicial or non-judicial foreclosure process, moving for the entry of a foreclosure judgment or an order ...
On Friday, March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), an emergency spending bill providing $2 trillion in relief to individuals and businesses who have or will suffer negative economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Credit Reporting
The CARES Act amends the Fair Credit Reporting Act by creating new reporting rules in those instances where a furnisher makes an “accommodation,” which is defined as “an agreement to defer one or more payments, make a partial payment, forbear any delinquent amounts ...
A .pdf copy of the Gadelhak opinion can be found here.
My last blog post (found here) provided a background of the evolving definition of “automated telephone dialing system” (ATDS) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and described the FCC’s long-running effort to expand the scope of the term. In recent times, the FCC’s repeated attempts to classify predictive dialers as an ATDS have come under scrutiny. First, the FCC faced issues with its interpretation in the case ACA Int’l v. FCC, 885 F.3d 687, 702-703 (D.C. Circ. 2018), which called into question the ...
On February 11, 2020, the United States Circuit Court of Appeal for the Eleventh Circuit issued its opinion in Anderman v. JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A., Case No. 19-13734 regarding the applicability of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) to certain conduct in judicial foreclosure actions. In Anderman, the plaintiffs alleged on behalf of themselves and a class of similarly situated individuals that JPMorgan Chase and its counsel violated the FDCPA by allegedly seeking to collect a debt against the potential heirs of deceased borrowers by naming them in ...
A .pdf copy of the Glasser opinion can be found here.
The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA” or the “Act”) has limited telephone calls that can be placed using certain automated equipment since 1991. However, since passage of the Act there has been considerable debate about the type of automated equipment subject to the Act’s restrictions. The TCPA specifically restricts the use of any “automated telephone dialing system” ("ATDS"). The statute defines ATDS as “equipment which has the capacity—(A) to store or produce telephone numbers to be called using a ...
On October 18, 2019, the Supreme Court granted the petition for a writ of certiorari filed in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In granting the petition, the Court agreed to take up two distinct issues. First, whether the vesting of substantial executive authority in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”), an independent agency led by a single director, violates the separation of powers clause of the Constitution. Second, if the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is found unconstitutional on the basis of the separation of powers, whether 12 ...
In Carol Tims v. LGE Community Credit Union, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals held that a credit union’s account agreement with one of its customers was ambiguous about which account balance calculation the bank would use in assessing overdraft fees on the customer’s account, which exposed the credit union to potential liability under the Electronic Fund Transfer Act.
The matter came to the Court on appeal after the trial judge dismissed the consumer’s complaint. The Court first addressed the history of overdraft fees, highlighting the rise of Electronic Fund Transfer ...
In addressing cross motions for summary judgment in BONNIE BROWN & JAMES BROWN, Plaintiffs, v. OCWEN LOAN SERVICING LLC, Defendant., 8:18-CV-136-T-60AEP, 2019 WL 4221718 (M.D. Fla. Sept. 5, 2019) (“Browns v. Ocwen”) on 9/5/2019, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida (“District Court”) determined that the Aspect dialer used by Defendant, Ocwen Loan Servicing LLC (“Ocwen”), was not an automatic telephone dialing system (“ATDS”) under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C.A. § 227 (“TCPA”). Plaintiff Bonnie Brown ...
In Roth v. Nationstar Mortgage, LLC, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal addressed a recurring issue involving whether or not sending monthly mortgage statements regarding a discharged mortgage debt violates the discharge injunctions prohibition on collecting discharged debt, found at 11 U.S.C. 524.
The facts of the case are not at all uncommon. Roth filed a Chapter 13 petition that provided secured creditors would retain their liens. Nationstar serviced a mortgage that was treated in this manner by the plan. Roth completed her Chapter 13 plan and received a discharge, of which ...