| Volume 142 Number 18 |
Subscribe to the Newsletter
Forward this news alert to your family and friends
Helpful Links
Texas Consumer Complaint Center
Credit Reports and Identity Theft
Your Guide to Small Claims Court
Contact Us
1-713-743-2168
The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
If you need to borrow money to consolidate credit card debt, make home or auto repairs, or pay other unexpected bills, a personal installment loan may be an option. If you’re shopping for an online loan, do some research, especially if you’re not familiar with the company. Click here for more.
Major changes for consumer credit reports are starting to roll out
Both Experian and the Fair Isaac Corporation (FICO) have tacked on new metrics in hopes of improving how it evaluates the overall creditworthiness of borrowers. With the aim of gaining a clearer picture of how risk is defined, those additional metrics will include a wide variety of nuances from cable TV and utility bills to checking and savings accounts.
Click here for more.
Your Money
Most of us rely on calendars to keep track of everything in our lives, from after-school activities for kids to doctors' visits and vacations. Yet, when it comes to our finances, we rarely think about keeping track of common money tasks, like paying monthly bills or setting aside money for retirement or an emergency fund. While we understand the importance of creating and maintaining a budget, it's typically not our first priority – but it should be for long-term financial health. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Misleading offer to "resolve" a time-barred debt when there is no accompanying disclosure that the debt is time-barred, may violate FDCPA. The Eleventh Circuit first noted that with regard to a collection letter seeking payment on a time-barred debt, an express threat of litigation is not required to state a claim for relief under § 1692e so long as one can reasonably infer an implicit threat. The court then noted that the question in the instant case is whether it is plausible that a reasonable jury could find that this representation to “resolve” the matter would so mislead an unsophisticated consumer. It concluded that it “is at least plausible that the collection letter Defendants sent to Plaintiff would have been "false, deceptive, or misleading" to the "least sophisticated" recipient of the letter, in violation of § 1692e of the FDCPA. The court reversed the district court’s dismissal of the consumer’s claim. Holzman v. Malcolm S. Gerald & Assocs., Inc., 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 10122, __ F.3d __, 2019 WL 1495642 Click here for more.