Bradley Partner Chris Hawkins Quoted in Bloomberg News on Supreme Court’s Distinction between Debt Buyers and Debt Collectors

Bradley attorney Chris Hawkins was quoted in Bloomberg BNA on the Supreme Court’s distinction between a debt collector and a creditor that collects debts in a dispute that could affect the $11.4 billion collections industry. In Henson v. Santander, Henson and other borrowers alleged that Santander and its agents violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act “in pursuing the debts and in the manner they pursued them,” according to court papers. The question before the high court in oral argument was whether a servicer stops being a collector if it buys the debts it was servicing.

Hawkins explained that a win for Santander “would prompt a vocal call from consumer advocates for a revision to the FDCPA to explicitly include debt buyers within the definition of ‘debt collector.’”

Should the borrowers prevail, he said, “I certainly would expect an industry re-evaluation of current debt-buying models and formulas to reflect litigation risk and compliance costs.”

The complete article, “Supreme Court Weighs Whether Debt Buyers Are Debt Collectors,” appeared in Bloomberg BNA on April 18, 2017. (login required)