The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has scheduled oral argument in the rehearing en banc in Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc. for February 22, 2022.  After ordering the rehearing en banc in November 2021, the Eleventh Circuit issued a memorandum indicating that for purposes of the rehearing, the Court wanted counsel to focus their briefs on the question: “Does Mr. Hunstein have Article III standing to bring this lawsuit?”

The district court had dismissed Mr. Hunstein’s complaint for failing to state a claim, concluding that he had not sufficiently alleged that the debt collector’s transmittal of information to the vendor violated Section 1692c(b) of the FDCPA because the transmittal did not qualify as a “communication in connection with the collection of any debt.”  After a unanimous Eleventh Circuit panel reversed the lower court’s dismissal and ruled that the plaintiff had stated a FDCPA claim, in response to the defendant’s first effort to obtain a rehearing, the panel vacated its original opinion and substituted a new opinion.

In the substituted new 2-1 opinion, the majority again concluded that the plaintiff had sufficiently alleged a potential claim for a violation of Section 1692c(b) of the FDCPA.  The new opinion was vacated by the Eleventh Circuit’s order to rehear the case en banc.

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