Firm Attorneys Attend Fair Debt Collection Practices Act Seminar

Firm attorney Richard Shuster traveled to Jacksonville, Florida to attend the National Associations of Consumer Advocates (NACA) annual seminar on the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The seminar was attended by leading consumer protection attorneys from across the United States. Richard Shuster is a member of NACA.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is a federal law that protects consumers from unfair or harassing collections practices. This law regulates the conduct of third party bill collectors including mortgage loan servicers and law firms that file foreclosure actions against homeowners. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act a loan servicer (such as Litton Loan Servicing) must comply with a consumers request that the servicer stop calling the consumer and conduct all future communications in writing. A consumer may also demand that a servicer or bill collector not call their cell phone or work number.

Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, bill collectors and mortgage loan servicers are prohibited from communicating with debtors when the bill collector or loan servicer knows that the debtor is represented by an attorney. If a loan servicer calls a homeowner after receiving a request to cease communications or after receiving notice that the homeowner has retained an attorney, the homeowner is entitled to statutory damages of up to $1,000.00 and actual damages.

In the near future our law firm will be filing additional lawsuits under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, against loan servicers who continued to call our clients after receiving notices that the homeowners had retained an legal counsel.