A group of small businesses and their individual owners have filed a putative class action lawsuit in a New York federal district court against online lender Kabbage, Inc. that alleges Kabbage engaged in a “rent-a-charter”...more
10/10/2019
/ Arbitration ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Commercial Loans ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Contract Terms ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Financing ,
Loan Agreements ,
Loans ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Motion to Compel ,
Putative Class Actions ,
RICO ,
Small Business ,
Statutory Violations ,
UDAP ,
Unconscionable Contracts ,
Usury
In a unanimous decision that will make it easier for plaintiffs in California state courts to obtain class certification, the California Supreme Court ruled that the ascertainability requirement for certification of class...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit found that unwanted, prerecorded phone messages to consumers, even without any other alleged harm, met the injury-in-fact requirement for Article III standing to bring a...more
7/24/2019
/ Article III ,
Due Process ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Injury-in-Fact ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Reduction of Damages ,
Standing ,
Statutory Damages ,
TCPA ,
Telemarketing
Earlier this year, we reported on the pendency of several Ninth Circuit appeals concerning the enforceability of consumer arbitration agreements with respect to claims for “public” injunctive relief. On June 28, 2019, in...more
A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Duguid v. Facebook, Inc., has reaffirmed the broad reading of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act’s (TCPA) definition of an automatic...more
6/19/2019
/ ATDS ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Debt Collection ,
Facebook ,
Financial Services Industry ,
First Amendment ,
Free Speech ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Social Media ,
TCPA ,
Text Messages
Last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit issued an opinion in Muransky v. Godiva Chocolatier, Inc., which, sua sponte, vacated and reissued its earlier ruling in the same case: that consumers have standing...more
Consistent with the weight of authority, the Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that certain litigation financing agreements structured as asset sales were not disguised "loans," and therefore not subject to the state's...more
Resolving a conflict in the courts of appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled yesterday that after a denial of class certification, a putative class member may not file a successive class action beyond the...more
6/13/2018
/ Appeals ,
China Agritech Inc v Resh ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Class Members ,
Equitable Tolling ,
FRCP 23 ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Reversal ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities Fraud ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Subsequent Litigation
A company did not violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by creating a false impression that it was meaningfully involved in a medical center’s debt collection, even though it “did not engage in many of the...more
In A.D. vs. Credit One Bank, N.A., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed a district court order compelling individual arbitration of a putative class action for Credit One's alleged violations of the...more
3/28/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Banking Sector ,
Class Certification ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Contract Terms ,
Debit and Credit Card Transactions ,
Motion to Compel ,
Non-Signatories ,
Putative Class Actions ,
TCPA
In a recent decision pitting the Bankruptcy Code against the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit held that a creditor could not compel arbitration of a debtor's class action claims...more
3/27/2018
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
Banking Sector ,
Bankruptcy Code ,
Chapter 7 ,
Charge-Off ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Consumer Contracts ,
Credit Cards ,
Credit Reports ,
Creditors ,
Debt Buyers ,
Dischargeable Debts ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Motion to Compel ,
Putative Class Actions
The decision of the New York Court of Appeals, in Desrosiers v. Perry Ellis Menswear, LLC., and in Vasquez v. Nat'l Sec. Corp., has created a potential obstacle to early class action settlements in cases filed in New York...more
1/5/2018
/ Appeals ,
Class Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Employment Litigation ,
Hiring & Firing ,
Internships ,
Misclassification ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Settlement ,
State and Local Government ,
Unpaid Interns ,
Unpaid Wages ,
Wage and Hour
A federal district court in New Jersey dismissed a putative class-action lawsuit against Total Card, Inc. (TCI), a South Dakota-based debt collector. The plaintiff alleged that TCI violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has denied certiorari to review the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Madden v. Midland Funding, LLC.
As previously reported, Madden involved a putative class action...more
6/28/2016
/ Banking Sector ,
Debt Buyers ,
FDCPA ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Interest Rates ,
Madden v Midland Funding ,
National Bank Act ,
Online Marketplace Lending ,
Petition for Writ of Certiorari ,
Preemption ,
Putative Class Actions ,
SCOTUS ,
Solicitor General ,
Usury
A borrower recently filed a putative class action against Fannie Mae under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) in federal court in Washington, D.C., alleging that Fannie engaged in unauthorized inquiries into borrowers'...more
A creditor that received a consumer's cell phone number through an intermediary had the consumer's ''prior express consent'' under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) to receive calls from a debt collector, the U.S....more
2/29/2016
/ Auto-Dialed Calls ,
Cell Phones ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Debt Collection ,
FCC ,
Health Care Providers ,
Popular ,
Prior Express Consent ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Summary Judgment ,
TCPA
In an unpublished opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently affirmed summary judgment for the defendant in a Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) case, refusing to entertain the plaintiff’s...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that an unaccepted Rule 68 settlement offer does not moot a class action even when the offer would provide the named plaintiff with complete individual relief. The decision in Campbell-Ewald...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit recently ruled that a plaintiff’s allegation that an affiant had falsely attested to having personal knowledge of the facts alleged in a debt collection complaint was...more
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez on October 14, 2015, an important case presenting the question of whether a defendant can defeat a class action by offering complete individual relief...more
10/23/2015
/ Article III ,
Campbell Ewald v Gomez ,
Class Action ,
Collective Actions ,
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) ,
Financial Institutions ,
FRCP 23 ,
Genesis HealthCare ,
Genesis Healthcare Corp. v. Symczyk ,
Mootness ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Offer of Judgment ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Rule 68 ,
SCOTUS ,
Standing ,
Statutory Damages ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction ,
Summary Judgment ,
TCPA
The California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Sanchez v. Valencia Holding Company, LLC, on August 3, 2015, reversing a finding by the Court of Appeal that an arbitration provision was unconscionable...more
8/12/2015
/ Appeals ,
Arbitration ,
AT&T Mobility v Concepcion ,
Best Practices ,
CA Supreme Court ,
Class Action ,
CLRA ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Injunctive Relief ,
Putative Class Actions ,
SCOTUS ,
Unconscionable Contracts
Phone calls made to promote a movie constituted “telemarketing” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) even though the two prerecorded messages left on the plaintiffs’ home phone line made no reference to the...more
7/30/2015
/ Article III ,
Class Action ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Do Not Call List ,
Popular ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Robocalling ,
SCOTUS ,
Spokeo ,
Spokeo v Robins ,
Standing ,
TCPA ,
Telemarketing
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an important case that will decide whether a plaintiff who cannot show any actual harm from a violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) nevertheless has standing under Article...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently ruled that foreclosure complaints can be the basis of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) claims. This decision continues the Third Circuit's expansive...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit recently held that a class action was not mooted by the unaccepted offers of judgment made by the defendant to each putative class representative in the full amount of his or her...more