Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Violation of the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act May Constitute a Violation of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently decided a case dealing with the interplay between the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and its Florida counterpart, the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act (FCCPA), Fla. Stat. § 559.55 et. seq. The decision, LeBlanc v. Unifund CCR Partners, G.P., --- F.3d ----, 2010 WL 1200691 (11th Cir. 2010), can be found here. According to the Court, even where the FCCPA does not create a private right of action for a violation of its terms, the FDCPA can provide a remedy.

The FDCPA has received an increasing amount of attention in recent years, with the struggling economy and the resultant proliferation of a new legal practice area- consumer debt collection defense. Lawsuits seeking damages for alleged violations of this law are becoming more and more popular. Of significantly lesser renown is the FCCPA, similar legislation enacted by the Florida legislature. In the spirit of the FDCPA, and as a supplement thereto (see Fla. Stat. § 559.552), the FCCPA makes it a violation of state law to engage in certain practices in the collection of consumer debt, including impersonating a law enforcement agency, using or threatening violence or force, disclosing the status of the debt to third parties, failing to disclose that the debt has been disputed, harassing the debtor, etc. The exhaustive list, which can be found at Fla. Stat. § 559.72, should look familiar to FDCPA attorneys.

The FCCPA also provides administrative remedies (Fla. Stat. § 559.730) and civil remedies (Fla. Stat. § 559.77) for violations of § 559.72, each of which is inspired by Federal law (15 U.S.C. §§ 1692(k) and 1692(l)).

In addition to these sections mirroring the FDCPA, the FCCPA requires consumer collection agencies located within the state and consumer collection agencies located outside the state conducting business here to register with the Office of Financial Regulation. Fla. Stat. § 559.553. But while it authorizes administrative actions against a consumer collection agency who fails to register, the FCCPA does not create a private right of action under Florida law for failing to register.

This brings us to the central question addressed by the Eleventh Circuit in Leblanc- whether relief can be provided under the Federal FDCPA for failing to register as a consumer collection agency as required by the Florida FCCPA. The issue came to the court because the Defendant collection agency allegedly sent a letter to a Florida debtor, prior to registering under the FCCPA, which threatened to sue him. The District Court ruled summarily that this violated the FDCPA because the letter contained a threat to take an action that could not legally be taken (i.e. sue the debtor in Florida without registering under § 559.553), and the collection agency appealed. The Eleventh Circuit reversed, holding that not all FCCPA violations amount to an FDCPA violation, and that in this case, based upon the specific language of the letter, a reasonable juror could find that the least sophisticated consumer would view the letter as something other than a threat to sue.

This decision is consistent with prior District Court rulings, and it makes sense. If the letter is a threat to take action that cannot legally be taken, it should be a violation of the FDCPA, § 1692e(5). The source of the law that makes the threatened action illegal, be it Federal consumer protection law, state criminal law, Federal Bankruptcy law, etc., is immaterial. Conversely, if the letter is not a threat to take an action that cannot legally be taken, then no section of the FDCPA can be invoked, and so the fact that a violation of the FCCPA has occurred is of no consequence. As a result, while the ruling should be noted, especially for its in-depth discussion of the least sophisticated consumer standard: "the least sophisticated consumer can be presumed to possess a rudimentary amount of information about the world and a willingness to read a collection notice with some care...however, the test has an objective component in that while protecting naive consumers, the standard also prevents liability for bizarre or idiosyncratic interpretations of collection notices by preserving a quotient of reasonableness,” it should not have a significant effect on the collection agency's policies and procedures.

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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Out of curiosity, why wasn't this article titled- Violation of the Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act May Not Constitute a Violation of the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act?

This title seems to be more in sync with the case ruling.

Craig Lewis said...

That's a fair question. However, neither the court's ruling nor this article began with the premise that an FCCPA violation equals an FDCPA violation. In fact, I was operating on the belief that prior to this ruling many in the industry reasoned that since the FCCPA's remedial scheme explicitly excludes a private right of action for failure to register, there can be no civil relief therefor under Federal law. That was in fact the argument advanced by the Defendant- that since the state legislature did not create a private right of action premised upon a failure to register, to allow Federal relief therefor would be out of line with the state's purpose in enacting the FCCPA. Of course, that argument ran contrary to several District Court decisions (not necessarily binding authority), as well as the FCCPA's proviso that it was not meant to affect the remedies provided under Federal law; and it was ultimately rejected by the 11th Circuit in this case for those reasons.

Also, the title explains the Courts ruling in its own terms, "In light of the statutes’ congruent purposes, we affirm the district court on this issue and now hold that violation of the FCCPA may support a federal cause of action under the FDCPA." (p.8)

That being said, your interpretation of the court's ruling (and of my characterization of its meaning) is correct. Thanks for your comment...always welcome.

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