Category: Miscellaneous Professionals

In Justice Neil Gorsuch’s first written opinion for the Supreme Court, he handed down a major victory for the secondary debt market by ruling that debt buyers do not fall under the definition of “debt collector” for purposes of the FDCPA. Under the FDCPA, debt collectors are subject to strict requirements when attempting to collect debts and violating these rules leads to significant liability. Until now, a split among the circuits existed as to whether the term “debt collector” includes entities that purchase debt originally …

Debt collectors recently won an important victory in the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that filing a stale claim in bankruptcy court does not run afoul of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (the “FDCPA”).  Although the Opinion does not affect a debtor’s potential claim for sanctions under frivolous filing rules, it does remove at least one potential avenue for recovery.

In Midland Funding, LLC v. Johnson, Midland filed a claim in the debtor’s Chapter 13 bankruptcy case for unpaid credit card debt Midland …

The five-day rule under the FDCPA, which requires a debt collector to provide the precise amount owed within five days of its initial communication with a borrower, often operates as a trap to debt collection firms.  The lack of a statutory definition for “initial communication” means that courts are free to interpret what will qualify, leaving debt collection firms to make their own determinations as to what will sufficiently protect them from later lawsuits based on this section of the statute.  Although pleadings are still …

It has been almost a decade since the subprime mortgage crisis rocked financial markets across the world.  In response, we saw the introduction of the Dodd-Frank legislation, civil suits against many of the country’s largest banks, and the emergence of a new market for purchasing defaulted loans. Since this initial flurry of activity, the economy has slowly recovered and the topic largely disappeared from the public eye.  However, the legal wake continues to reverberate in the foreclosure litigation arena, with mortgage holders continuing to search …

Unmanned aircraft, more commonly known as drones, are becoming increasingly popular in the civilian market.  Advances in technology have made drones easier to fly and have expanded their utility for recreational users.  Businesses likewise view drones as a new tool to increase their operations and bring new value to consumers.  For instance, Amazon, recently unveiled its plans to use drones to make same-day deliveries to customers. But what liability issues await?

The rise in drone use has also prompted a demand for professional drone services. …

A statement of the obvious: professional liability involves claims against professionals. What professionals? Attorneys, accountants, architects, financial advisers and others who may purchase a professional malpractice insurance policy offered by various insurers. But what about the dozens of other classes of professionals who may not have an insurance product dedicated to them? That’s where miscellaneous professional liability kicks in. Today, we’ll focus on travel agents as an example of the types of exposure facing a “miscellaneous” professional.

As vacation season winds down, the number of …