A debt collector that attempts to collect an amount that a consumer doesn’t owe is held strictly liable under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, unless the debt collector has in place procedures designed to prevent unintentional errors. The question in this Ninth Circuit appeal is whether a debt collector that admittedly has no such procedures can avoid liability anyway on the basis that it merely relied on its creditor-client.
In our brief, we argue that this proposed reliance-on-the-creditor defense would upset decades of settled interpretation of the Act, frustrate the intent of Congress, place scrupulous debt collectors at a competitive disadvantage, and have negative consequences for many consumers. |
