COLUMBUS, OH — AACANet is pleased to announce the addition of industry-veteran, Brooke Teal as the Director of Business Development.

Brooke will build, grow, and maintain strong relationships with clients. Prior to joining AACANet, Brooke was a Lead Attorney at Lloyd & McDaniel, PLC where she represented both original creditors and debt buyers. She has extensive collections litigation experience and previously worked as in-house counsel for two of the top five debt buyers in the nation. Brooke is heavily involved in the creditor’s rights community, previously serving as the Florida Creditors Bar President and Secretary of the Florida Small Claims Rules Committee. She is licensed to practice in Florida, Georgia, and Alabama.

“We are building a team committed to personal service and promoting open and direct communication,” says Tom Balcerzak, President of AACANet. “With Brooke’s experience and industry involvement, we are positioned to face the challenges of our industry head-on, partnering with our clients to implement high-quality and compliant solutions that are cost-effective and efficient.”

Brooke Teal is out of Atlanta, Georgia, and can be reached at bteal@aacanet.com.

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About AACANet, Inc.

Headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, the AACANet network comprises thousands of collections personnel nationwide and has grown into the premier forwarder of delinquent receivables. Our recovery rates meet, and in most cases exceed collection industry averages. The efficiency of our national network and superior recovery tools further enhance the net returns of accounts managed by AACANet. With over 20 years of data and expertise, plus a proven account management method supported by compliant and qualified collections professionals, the industry counts on us to recover more at a lower cost. For more information visit www.aacanet.com.

In April, New Mexico enacted a law targeting Health care collections; now, it’s Nevada’s turn. On June 2, 2021, Nevada’s Governor Steve Sisolak signed SB #248 into law.  The new law, which goes into effect in less than one month on July 1, 2021, imposes significant new requirements and restrictions on collecting medical debt in Nevada.

The law applies to all debt for goods and services provided by medical facilities.  The definitions of “medical debt” and “medical facility” are expansive. The only specific exemption from the definition of medical debt are open-end or closed-end extensions of credit made by a financial institution to a borrower, which the borrower can use at their discretion for purposes other than the purchase of goods or services provided by a healthcare facility.

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60-day notification period

The law specifies that not less than 60 days before taking any action to collect a medical debt, a collection agency must send the medical debtor by registered or certified mail written notification that includes:

• The name of the facility;
• The date on which goods and services were provided;
• The principal amount of the debt;
• The name of the collection agency; and
• Information regarding whether the medical debt was assigned to the collection agency for collection; or that the collection agency has otherwise obtained the medical debt for collection.

Notably, the law also specifies that if a debtor initiates contact with a collection agency during the 60-day notification period, the collection agency cannot consider the contact to be a waiver of the collections hold; the prohibition on collection remains intact.

Disclosure requirements: Voluntary payments during the 60-day notification period

The law allows a collection agency to accept a voluntary payment from a medical debtor during the 60- day notification period, so long as:

• The debtor initiates the contact with the agency; and
• The collection agency discloses to the medical debtor that:
  • A payment is not demanded or due; and
  • The medical debt will not be reported to any credit bureau during the 60-day notification period.

Further, the Act states that any voluntary payment made by a medical debtor does not extend the applicable statute of limitations, is not an admission of liability, and shall not be construed as a waiver of any defense to the collection of the medical debt.

Other Prohibitions:

The law also prohibits collection agencies from

• Taking confessions of judgment;
• Commencing a civil action if the amount of the debt is less than $10,000.00; and
• Charging or collecting a fee of more than 5%.

insideARM Perspective:

If, after reading the above, you thought, “wow- I can’t really tell what my company can or cannot do, or how to implement this law in less than a month.” you wouldn’t be alone. This law is poorly drafted and extremely ambiguous; we could probably fill up an entire page listing all the ambiguities in this law, but we’ll just go with a few:

• Section 7 prohibits “taking any action to collect a medical debt” but fails to define it. Yet the same section of the law requires debt collectors to send a notice via registered or certified mail to the medical debtor, which includes the balance of the debt. Apparently, this notice is not considered “taking any action to collect a medical debt,” but the law gives us no indication as to why. Also, what happens if the medical debtor doesn’t sign for the mail? How long does the collection agency have to wait before considering their duty to provide the consumer notice discharged? Is the collection agency’s task complete on sending the letter?

• Section 7.5 requires collection agencies to provide medical debtors certain disclosures before taking a voluntary payment, which might make sense over the phone, but what does a collection agency do with a mailed-in payment? Do they send another letter? If so, why would that not be considered an “action to collect a medical debt” and how long do they have to wait before they can consider it delivered? Can a collection agency include these disclosures in the newly required 60-day notice to ensure a medical debtor receives it before making a voluntary payment, without causing the letter to lose its apparent status as not an “action to collect a medical debt”?   There’s certainly no direction one way or the other in the law.

This law has so many holes that some collection agencies may choose to shut down medical collections in Nevada altogether instead of risking violating a law that doesn’t seem to tell the agencies clearly what they can or cannot do. While some people may say that’s a good thing, the small hospital, doctors, and other medical providers who depend on collecting delinquent balances to keep their doors open may disagree. 

Any accounts receivable entity which is collecting debt in Nevada should discuss the law in its entirety with an attorney to determine their next steps.

ST. PAUL, Minn. —  The Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Minnesota and North Dakota has awarded IC System with the 2021 Torch Awards for Ethics. The BBB uses the Torch Award for Ethics to recognize “businesses committed to ethical marketplace practices.”

IC System is a privately held firm in its third generation of family ownership. It was founded in 1938 and provides receivables management services to companies throughout the United States. The company’s Core Values of People, Integrity, Performance, Pride, and Innovation shape its ethical practices both internally and externally.

“The Torch Award for Ethics is a great honor and a testament to IC System’s commitment to doing the right thing,” said John Erickson, President and CEO of IC System. “Our mission is making collections better, and we achieve that with an ethical approach. We treat consumers, our clients, and our employees with the compassion and understanding they deserve. We take enormous pride in our personal and professional integrity, so it’s validating that the BBB, the authority in business ethics, recognizes IC System’s high ethical standards.”

IC System has been accredited by the BBB since 1992 and maintains an A+ rating. IC System was previously a Torch Award finalist in 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2019.

An independent panel of judges reviews entries for the BBB’s Torch Awards for Ethics. Judges focus on the Torch Awards criteria of excellence, ethics and integrity, teamwork, trust, respect, community involvement, and supporting documentation such as letters, pictures, flyers, and other materials submitted by the applicant.

The BBB’s mission is to create an ethical marketplace where buyers and sellers can trust each other. According to their website, “One of the ways we do this is by recognizing marketplace role models. In this spirit, BBB publicly recognizes businesses committed to ethical marketplace practices with the annual BBB Torch Awards for Ethics.” 

Lisa Jemtrud, BBB Vice President of Community Relations, says on their website, “This award is special because it’s bigger than a product, service or brand. It’s about displaying an ongoing commitment to ethical practices. BBB is proud to give this award as our highest honor.”

Erickson added, “To be honest, our industry doesn’t have the greatest reputation—no one likes getting a call from a collection agency. However, we strive to overcome that with positive consumer interactions, using an ethical and compassionate approach. The BBB Torch Awards for Ethics is a badge IC System wears with honor as a testament to our mission of making collections better.”

About IC System

IC System is one of the largest receivables management companies in the United States. Founded in 1938, IC System is a privately held accounts receivable management firm in its third generation of family ownership. IC System provides customized, tailor-made debt recovery solutions for healthcare, dental, small business, government, utilities, and telecommunications industries nationwide. Follow IC System on Twitter at @icsystem or on LinkedIn.

About the BBB

For more than 100 years, the Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands and charities they can trust. In 2019, people turned to BBB more than 183 million times for BBB Business Profiles on nearly 5.8 million businesses and Charity Reports on 11,000 charities, all available for free at BBB.org. 

GENESEO, N.Y. —  Coast Professional, Inc. (Coast) is excited to announce the promotion of Chad Reese to Senior Director of Operations. Mr. Reese has more than 20 years of experience in the collection industry and has managed high-performing teams for more than 19 years.

Mr. Reese began his Coast career as a manager in 2018 and was promoted to director in less than a year. He has been instrumental in establishing and expanding the company’s Western New York office locations and played a major role in growing the East Aurora office to 120 employees. Mr. Reese was directly responsible for managing the day-to-day collection activities of his team, which consisted of several managers and dozens of consumer care representatives.

In his new role, Mr. Reese will be responsible for supervising customer service representatives to ensure adherence to quality standards, deadlines, and proper procedures. He will contribute to the development and execution of Coast’s short-and long-term plans at the company’s new Albion, New York office location. Mr. Reese will coach, develop, and counsel his teams to achieve quality performance, provide ongoing training when necessary, and monitor Coast’s daily operations in Albion.

“Chad has cultivated a culture of transparency and respect which encourages his employees to work hard and succeed,” said Jonathan Prince, Coast Chief Executive Officer. “His promotion is a result of his exemplary leadership skills, consistent success as a director, and dedication to Coast’s overall mission. I want to personally congratulate Chad on his well-deserved promotion.”

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Mr. Reese is a member of the American Collector’s Association (ACA International). He received his bachelor’s degree from Davis College.

About Coast Professional, Inc.:

Coast Professional, Inc. is an accounts receivable management and call center-based company, dedicated to the respectful and ethical communication with consumers. Coast provides professional call center services to hundreds of campus-based colleges, universities, and government clients. Coast is a seven-time honoree on the Inc. 5000 list for America’s Fastest-Growing Private Companies provided by Inc. Magazine and in 2020, was recognized for the fifth time as one of the “Best Places to Work In Collections” by insideARM.com and Best Companies Group. Since 1976, Coast has worked closely with clients to increase recoveries by assisting consumers in resolving their financial obligations. Coast’s success is exemplified by exceptional recoveries, superior service, and dedication to the highest levels of compliance. More information about Coast can be found at www.coastprofessional.com.

DOVER, Del. —  Account Control Technology, Inc. (ACTH), one of the nation’s leading debt recovery, ARM and business process outsourcing companies, announced on June 4, 2021 the completion of their sale to Transworld Systems Inc. (TSI). Following the sale, TSI further cements the company’s position as the largest U.S. technology-enabled provider of accounts receivable management (ARM) solutions in the United States.

Established in 1990 by Dale Van Dellen and his wife, Deborah, their focus was to serve the student and campus-based loans market. Together, they grew the business into a highly successful organization, acquiring Convergent Resources Holdings, LLC in 2014 and expanding their business solutions portfolio. Now providing opportunities to over 4500 employees across the globe, ACTH has become a leading provider of business management and financial services for the higher education, government, healthcare, consumer, and commercial markets. 

ACTH owner, Dale Van Dellen expresses, “Thank you to our awesome staff for their dedication and their loyalty throughout the years. I would also like to thank our clients for their trust in us with their business. It was a long road with a few bumps along the way. You have left me with great memories.”

About Account Control Technology Holdings, Inc. (ACT Holdings)

Account Control Technology Holdings, Inc. provides comprehensive business process outsourcing and financial services to diverse industries. Our companies partner with clients to help them run the “business” behind their operations so they can focus on what they do best – whether it’s serving customers, educating students, caring for patients, or keeping communities moving forward. ACT Holdings companies include Convergent Outsourcing, Inc., Convergent Revenue Cycle Management, Inc., Convergent Healthcare Recoveries, Inc. and Account Control Technology, Inc. with locations across the US, nearshore, and offshore. For more information, visit www.accountcontrolholdings.com.

The CFPB has announced it will be looking at racial issues and will be taking an active role in addressing issues of pervasive racial injustice and the long-term economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on consumers. On April 28, 2021, the CFPB issued a press release announcing it analyzed county-level demographic data coming from complaints for racial disparity. Additionally, on June 3, 2021, Acting Director Uejio released this video discussing the CFPB’s intentions to take action against racial injustices toward consumers.  

Where did this come from?

While the complaint bulletin linked in the CFPB’s press release does not state the specific reason for the CFPB’s focus on race, it does note that the CFPB received over 700,000 consumer complaints since the declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic on March 13, 2020.

The video linked above provides further insight. At the start of the video, Acting Director Uejio opines that “Our nation is in the midst of a long-overdue conversation about race.” Then, after citing his personal experiences with racism, mentioning widely publicized racial issues which took place over the past year, and noting that other bureau members know what it’s like to face discrimination, Acting Director Uejio states unequivocally that the CFPB is “working hard to protect all consumers against discrimination.” The video concludes with a commitment from Acting Director Uejio that “the CFPB will take action against institutions and individuals whose policies and practices prevent fair and equal access to credit or take advantage of poor, underserved, and disadvantaged communities.”

How did the CFPB analyze the data and what did it show?

Although the CFPB does not collect race and ethnicity information in the complaint process, consumers provide their mailing addresses. To evaluate the communities that were filing the most complaints, the CFPB used race and ethnicity estimates from the U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey coupled with the consumer’s mailing address to group each of the more than 3,000 counties in the United States into five separate categories.  The categories were 1%-20% minority, 21%-40% minority, 41%-60% minority, 61%-80% minority, and 81%-100% minority. The CFPB referred to those counties where the minority (non-white or Hispanic) populations make up more than 61% or more of the total population as “predominantly minority counties.”

According to the CFPB’s analysis, it received more complaints per capita from consumers living in minority counties, and the largest rate of increase between 2019 and 2020 came from minority counties. These results did not change based on product line; all product lines, including credit reporting and debt collection, followed these trends. Further, from 2019 to 2020, complaints increased at a greater rate in predominantly minority counties compared to predominantly white, non-Hispanic counties.

The chart below shows the complaint volume percentage increase by minority volume category, indexed to the 2018 complaint average.

Regarding the analysis, CFPB Acting Director Dave Uejio stated, “Consumer complaints support and inform the CFPB’s work, and provide key insight into emerging trends in the financial marketplace. …Today’s report shows that while all people across the nation face financial hardships, a significantly higher rate of complaints come from ethnically diverse communities. The data raise concerns that deserve our further study and, as such, we’ll keep a spotlight on patterns or any abuses we see.”

What is the CFPB Going to do about it?

To study these issues and attempt to understand the experiences of diverse communities in the consumer marketplace, the CFPB plans to enhance the consumer complaint form to allow consumers to enter household size and household income information. The CFPB will also explore what additional demographic information may be appropriate to collect via the complaint process, such as race and ethnicity. The CFPB believes these enhancements will help it better understand who submits complaints today and how that changes over time.  Further, the CFPB expects this work to help illustrate the life-cycle of consumer credit from originations through collections and credit reporting to understand consumers’ diverse experiences in the marketplace.

insideARM Perspective:

Although the complaint bulletin acknowledges that the county-level demographics analysis provides only a “high-level overview” and has certain limitations, it does appear the CFPB considers its analysis to show a trend. We’re not quite sure yet what this means for those in the accounts receivable space, but when the CFPB states it has a specifically focused initiative it will be pursuing, such as this one, those entities which interact with consumers should pay attention.  We will bring you more information on this emerging initiative from the CFPB as it develops.

McKay Bird is the Chief Marketing Officer of TCN, a global provider of a comprehensive cloud-based call center platform for enterprises, contact centers, BPOs, and collection agencies.

Can you describe the process of innovation at your company? What does it look like? Who is involved?

Innovation at TCN doesn’t just come from the engineering and development teams, it’s a group effort that also involves our executive team and our marketing, sales, and business development teams with a shared goal of finding solutions to solve the most common problems we’re hearing from our customers.

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Internally, we regularly get together to share progress on projects with the project engineers and development teams and to hear about the status of updates, new products, and features that are in the works. Our internal all-hands meeting is a valuable opportunity to get feedback and share insights about how we can help our customers run their businesses more efficiently and effectively — we are particularly driven by our ability to listen to our customers and design the features of our platform so intuitively that they will think it was built just for the needs of their business.

What do you think is the greatest innovation in history? Why?

This may sound cliche, but the printing press is one of the greatest inventions of all time. Let me explain. 

Before the printing press, books and articles about religion, ideas, news, etc. were all produced for and meant to be shared by members of the ruling class and those with status or importance who could afford it. The printing press provided the ability for anyone to publish and share their views. With time, it opened the door to a free press.  

Because of the invention of the printing press, a period began where opinions and public reasoning led to free speech and even popular uprising in some areas of the world. In most cases, it was necessary to level the political playing field and had a huge impact on how the United States was established. The printing press paved the way to freedom of speech. 

What’s the most innovative decision your company has made? Tell the story behind it.

The most innovative decision TCN has made was our commitment to develop our Natural Language Compliance (NLC) tool. As anyone in the contact center space knows, FTC and FCC regulations are constantly being changed and updated, which makes it very difficult for organizations to remain compliant with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). 

The creation of NLC enables contact centers and compliance officers to create and add customizable rules that fit their specific compliance needs. This provides an immeasurable convenience to take the burden off the organizations of manually researching and updating rules every time new regulations are released. There’s simply too many to keep track of and our NLC tool is a great example of how technology can automate something that would otherwise take hours and hours to complete.

What current industry problems do you think will require the most innovative solutions?

The myriad of court cases, rulings, and upper court battles can make compliance activities feel like a moving target and one that can be incredibly complex and nuanced. It’s definitely the top issue for call centers and contact centers that requires an innovative approach to manage effectively. Any innovation that can provide clarity and precision in daily operations is beneficial to both businesses and consumers. 

One example of this is the recent Supreme Court decision in Facebook vs. Duguid case which, after 10 years, has finally provided technical clarity about what an ATDS is. Correctly understanding the implications of this ruling is essential to building credibility in our industry and returning trust back to our communications.

Complete this question in the context of the ARM industry: What if….

What if contact center regulations like TCPA didn’t exist? 

Ninety percent of calls to consumers originate outside of the United States and Canada, which is outside of any effective jurisdiction, regulation, or force of law. This means the TCPA is actually only able to regulate and protect a small percentage of calls, but it is still very important.

The main goal of the TCPA is to protect consumers. Right now, there are approximately four billion robocalls placed each month — just imagine how much higher that number would be without TCPA? Another thing to think about is that consent management services would no longer be used, regardless of channel or reason for the call – i.e. payment reminders, account balances, notifications, etc. The TCPA exists for a reason and it has a useful purpose, so it’s best that everyone understands how it affects their industry to ensure they can comply with it.

The iA Innovation Council is a collaborative working group of product, tech, strategy, and operations thought leaders at the forefront of analytics, communications, payments, and compliance technology. Group members meet in person (and lately, virtually) several times each year to engage in substantive dialogue and whiteboard sessions with the creative thinkers behind the latest innovations for the industry, the regulators who audit and establish guardrails for new technology, and educators, entrepreneurs and innovators from outside the industry who inspire different thinking. 

2021 members include:

FAIRFIELD, N.J. — Vertican Technologies, Inc., a global leader in the debt collection software industry, announced today a collaboration with Executive Process, LLC dba EZ Messenger to integrate its EZ Venue software into the Q-LawE platform.

Q-Law has been a leading software solution designed to help with many aspects of practice management for law firms focused on the debt collection industry. As the leading software provider to the sector, Vertican recently released Q-LawE, a full-featured solution that integrates even more of the tasks required by law firms to file and manage cases.

EZ Venue was developed to simplify the time-consuming and costly process of locating and selecting the proper jurisdiction or court venue for filing cases.

EZ Venue was initially developed by EZ Messenger in 2012 for a client in Texas, where venue identification can be unclear and time-consuming. Since that time, EZ Venue has grown to encompass more than 35 states and is the gold standard in venue identification.

With the integration of EZ Venue into the Q-LawE platform, law firms can now vastly reduce the time spent finding and verifying the correct venue to file suit in as it will be an integral part of the Q-LawE case production process.

EZ Venue provides the ability to tailor court mapping for clients who need to customize the venue’s results for their cases directly into the Q-LawE process. EZ Venue can also provide custom venue mapping that will exclude certain courts and even indicate whether to file up to a county or district court in place of a justice court, all as defined by the user.

Kurt Sund, Q-LawE Product Owner and Chief Innovation Officer, says, “We are thrilled about our collaboration with EZ Messenger and the addition of EZ Venue to our platform. The integration of this technology to Q-LawE will save clients a substantial amount of time and cost.”

Michael Shapiro, CEO of EZ Messenger, put it this way, “We are not only excited to partner with one of the largest providers of software to our client base, but we also anticipate the opportunity to further partner on new technologies in the near future.”

About Vertican Technologies

Vertican Technologies provides the collection industry with best-in-class technology, making operations more efficient, compliant, and profitable. Solutions include: Q-LawE, vExchange®, Collection-Master, vMedia, and YGC Solutions. With over 40 years of experience, Vertican’s knowledgeable staff and comprehensive software packages automate and streamline collections. Visit www.vertican.com to learn more.

About EZ Messenger

EZ Messenger is a nationwide leader in the Service of Process. EZ offers full-service legal support business process outsourcing focused on service of process, eFiling, automation, skip tracing, and venue identification. Visit www.ezvenue.app to learn more.

LAKE FOREST, Ill. — Transworld Systems Inc. (TSI), the largest U.S. technology-enabled provider of accounts receivable management (ARM) solutions, announced today it has completed its acquisition of Account Control Technology Holdings, Inc. (ACT Holdings), a leading debt recovery, ARM and business process outsourcing company. Transaction terms were not disclosed.

“Scale matters, and our acquisition of ACT Holdings will further bolster our position as the largest receivables management and collections company in the United States, enabling us to make additional investments in people, technology, and compliance and strengthening our industry-leading position,” said TSI Chief Executive Officer Joe Laughlin. “The addition of ACT Holdings will significantly increase our first-party collections and customer care business and expand our healthcare revenue cycle management service offerings. We are excited to welcome ACT Holdings customers and employees to the TSI family.”

About Transworld Systems Inc.

TSI is the largest technology-enabled provider of Accounts Receivable Management (ARM) solutions in the United States. The Company’s solutions include debt collections, customer relationship management, and business process outsourcing. Additionally, TSI owns UAS, a technology-enabled primary loan servicer for student loans. TSI differentiates itself with its collection analytics, digital collections technology, global scale, and Compliance Management System. Its clients include Fortune 100 corporations, financial institutions, hospitals, government agencies, property management, and small and medium-sized businesses. To learn more, please visit tsico.com.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals has been quite clear in its recent holdings regarding Article III standing in FDCPA cases: to have standing a consumer must do more than allege an FDCPA violation.  However, on May 14, 2021, in the case of Markakos v. Mericredit, Inc., No. 20-2351, (7th Cir May 14, 2021), although the 7^th Circuit reached a similar conclusion, two of the judges on the panel issued concurring opinions which agreed with the result, but questioned whether the 7^th Circuit has gone too far.

The Case:

In Markakos, the consumer filed a lawsuit against a debt collector, alleging that the debt collector sent her letters with inconsistent amounts and which did not clearly identify the creditor. Notably, however, the consumer admitted she properly disputed the debt and did not overpay.  Instead, she alleged she was injured because she was confused and aggravated by the letters.

The opinion, written by Judge Kanne, begins by explicitly noting, “[i]n the last five months, we’ve held eight times that a breach of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) does not, by itself, cause an injury in fact.” Accordingly, the Court affirmed that the case should be dismissed for lack of standing and provided the following analysis:

“[the consumer]” has failed to show an injury in fact for a commonsense reason: she has not paid a dime, and she has properly disputed her debt. Thus, winning or losing this suit would not change [the consumer]’s prospects. If this case went forward and [the consumer] lost, she would continue disputing her debt based on the inadequacy of the services provided. And if she won, she would do just the same; not a penny would change hands, and not a word or deed would be rescinded.”

The Concurrences:

The other two judges on the panel, Judge Ripple and Judge Rovner, each submitted concurring opinions, which agreed that the ruling was correct, but questioned whether the 7^th Circuit has gone too far in its application of Spokeo Inc. v. Robins, 136 S. Ct. 1540 (2016).   

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While agreeing with the outcome, Judge Ripple noted that congress intended the public to be the primary enforcer of the FDCPA and questioned whether the ruling takes “too restrictive a view of congress’s authority to identify intangible injuries and to allocate enforcement burdens.”   According to Judge Ripple, by barring a complaint which alleges a “core substantive violation of the FDCPA… the court clearly effects a direct and complete frustration of Congress’s attempt to regulate commerce in the manner that it has chosen.” Judge Ripple went on to question whether any FDCPA plaintiff can be successful unless the debt collector’s deceit is successful.   

Judge Rovner also agreed with the outcome based on the current 7^th Circuit precedent regarding standing. However, she agreed with Judge Ripple’s concurrence and cautioned against thwarting the judgment of congress by an interpretation of Article III standing, which is narrower than required.   According to Judge Rovner, the proper approach is to find the failure to comply with a substantive provision of the FDCPA is a concrete harm.  She concluded by saying, “[t]he cleaner approach, and one that would fully satisfy the purpose of the standing requirement, would be to recognize that an allegation of the statutory violation alone can adequately allege a risk of harm where the violation by its nature presents a risk of harm to its victims of the type traditionally recognized at common law, and no facts indicate that the plaintiff is not among the individuals so affected.”

insideARM Perspective:

Do the concurrences in Markakos mean the string of decisions on standing in the 7^th Circuit have reached an end? Probably not. At least not right now anyway since despite raising concerns, each of the concurrences noted that the decision was correct under the current 7^th Circuit case law.

While Judge Rovner’s concurrence was interesting since she verbalized the concept of a “substantive provision” of the FDCPA, where precisely would the line be drawn? Consumer attorneys have long argued that mere technical violations are substantive, and the FDCPA itself does not give us a bright line list of what is and is not substantive. As such, a potential substantive vs. not substantive analysis does little to clear up the muddy waters of the FDCPA. Conversely, the standard set forth in the main opinion issued by Judge Kanne provides a much clearer line of distinction: will redress of this issue change anything for this consumer? If the answer is no- then there has been no harm.

We’ll continue to watch this line of cases as it develops and bring you any updates as they develop.