Judge Rules that Ellis v. Solomon and Solomon Violated the FDCPA by Suing Before During 30 Day Debt Validation Period
January 28th, 2010. Published under Fraud. No Comments.
I just got this via email. Ellis v. Solomon & Solomon P.C, Julie Farina, and Douglas Fisher 09-1247-cv United States Court of Appeals For the Second Circuit on 01/13/10 Affirmed the verdict of the district court which held that the defendants violated the FDCPA by serving Ellis with a summons and complaint during the FDCPA thirty-day validation period, without explaining that commencement of the lawsuit did not affect the rights set forth in the validation notice. We agree, and hold that service of process during the validation period must , at a minimum, be preceded or accompanied by notice to the consumer clarifying that the lawsuit does not in any alter the information contained in the validation notice. The National Association of Retail Collection Attorneys filed a amicus brief in support of the collection lawyers but it didn’t do any good. Judge said there is real potential for confusion when a consumer is served with a lawsuit during the validation period. Without some explanation to the consumer of the relationship between the suit and the provisions in the notice it may well appear to the least sophisticated consumer that being taken to court trumps any other out of court rights she had. PDF version of the decision