| Volume 97 Number 2 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
You can sue in justice court for as much as $10,000. But you cannot just "take less" to get into court. If you are owed $11,000, you can't sue in justice court for only $10,000.
For more general information about the law, check out my website.
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FTC Obtains $3.3M From Debt Collector
Jason R. Begley and Wayne W. Lunsford, the owners of Rincon Debt Management, have been barred from the debt collection business and their business must forfeit $3.3 million dollars. The punishment comes as part of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) after the company violated federal debt collection laws by making wrongful calls, posing as process servers, and threatening criminal action. Although an initial fine of $23 million was levied against the defendants, the company only had $3.3 million in assets to surrender. The money will be used to provide refunds to victims.
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Why Free Email Isn't Free
With more than 500 million users worldwide, Google's GMail email service is the largest of its kind. Although it, and other web-based email services, are available for free, they do come at a cost.
Google has been accused of violating consumer privacy on many occasions, and is currently facing numerous global lawsuits for things like illegal wiretapping and scanning the contents of emails. Although known for offering free services, Google pocketed $16.86 billion in revenue for the last quarter of 2013. The financial windfall comes from ads, specially targeted to users by scanning the contents of messages to show relevant goods and services. In essence, when users send and receive emails, they are painting a picture of their interests, connections, and financial capacity, which are all extremely valuable to advertisers.
The privacy problems exist not only for GMail users, but for non-GMail users who have the contents of their emails scanned without specific consent when they send emails to GMail users.
If a class action against Google succeeds, damages could reach trillions of dollars.
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Your Money
How much should you save for emergencies?
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For the Lawyers
Debt collector’s offer to “settle” a time-barred debt may violate Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
The Seventh Circuit held that debt collectors' letters to consumers offering to "settle" time-barred debts (that is, debts that would be subject to a successful statute-of-limitations defense) could mislead consumers and, thus, could violate the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).
The court stated,
"The proposition that a debt collector violates the FDCPA when it misleads an unsophisticated consumer to believe a time-barred debt is legally enforceable, regardless of whether litigation is threatened, is straightforward under the statute. Section 1692e(2)(A) specifically prohibits the false representation of the character or legal status of any debt."
The court emphasized that a threat of legal action is not required.
"The plain language of the FDCPA prohibits not only threatening to take actions that the collector cannot take, but also the use of any false, deceptive, or misleading representation, including those about the character or legal status of any debt."
The court noted that although its ruling created a circuit conflict, it was consistent with positions taken by the Federal Trade Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
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