• 20
  • January
    2012

As any creditor or collections professional is certainly aware, collecting from can be a difficult process. It seems as though policy makers, public opinion and the news media are always on the side of the person who defaults on a payment rather than the party who actually suffers the loss when the owed money is not paid.

This week the U.S. Supreme Court sent a case base to the federal Circuit Court of Appeals after ruling that a person can bring a suit in federal court against a debt collector for alleged violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The debt collector had been attempting to recover a debt that the consumer had taken out for a student loan.

While policymakers and public opinion often seem to be ready leave creditors out to dry, there is also a complaint in some quarters that banks and other lenders are not facilitating the flow of commerce by lending more freely. It seems that lenders would be much more willing to extend credit if there were stronger tool available to ensure that creditors would be repaid.

In any collection situation it is always important to ensure that your practices are in compliance with the wide variety of laws and regulations that could potentially apply to collection practices. And as this case demonstrates the regulatory landscape in which collections professionals must operate can change and can cause trouble if your practices are not all up to date.

Source: The Associated Press, "Court lets telemarketers be sued in federal court," Jesse Holland, Jan. 18, 2012