FTC To Discuss Collection Litigation And Arbitration At Meeting

Posted by | Posted on 9:12 AM

By Jonathan Summers

The FTC are to host a round-table to discuss debt collection and arbitration practices Aug. 5 and 6 at the Thorne Auditorium, Northwestern School of Law, in Chicago.

The round-table follows up on the FTCs February 2009 report Collecting Consumer Debts: The Challenges of Change " A Workshop Report, which favored that the debt collection regulatory system in the U.S. should be changed and renewed. The report also publicized a series of regional round-tables to further discuss debt collection litigation and arbitration, next weeks meeting being the first.

The round-table will be composed of representatives from the collection industry, government officials, judicial system representatives, consumer advocates, academicians and other stakeholders.

On the first day, the round-table will cover litigation topics including service of process, consumer default rates, time-barred debts, evidentiary prerequisites, and trials in collection actions and post-judgment matters.The second day will cover arbitration topics including the role of consumer choice, consumer arbitration codes and behavior in certain situation, perceptions of bias, transparency of results and post-decision issues.

Too many consumer attorneys battle collections not on the keynote of whether the consumer legally owes the debt, but on puny technical issues, according to Markoff. The FTC doesn't manage attorneys. Among the issues ACA International hopes to bring up at the Chicago round-table is the education of consumers regarding statute of limitations for collections, process servers and proper notice for consumers on arbitration issues. NAF agreed to immediately stop accepting cases involving consumer credit.

New Yorks attorney general also announced the filing of a lawsuit against 37 law firms that could potentially overturn 100,000 consumer credit judgments against consumers in the state. The suit also targets two collection lawsuit process servers. In addition to the FTC, NARCA and ACA, others on the round-table will include representatives from Public Justice, the Consumers Union, the Michigan Poverty Law Program, the Michigan Creditors Bar Association, the University of Kansas School of Law, Public Citizen, the Center for Responsible Lending, the Illinois Credit Bar Association, the American Arbitration Association, the AARP Foundation, the National Arbitration Forum and DBA International.

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