Consumer Law
Supreme Court Debt Collection Ruling Means More Work for Lawyers
Posted Aug 4, 2008, 09:39 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Lawyers are preparing for an onslaught of collections lawsuits after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling allowing plaintiffs to sue to recover unpaid debt, even if they don’t have a financial stake in the outcome.
Dallas lawyer Craig Jordan told the Houston Chronicle he is already seeing about 10 times the number of collection lawsuits against credit card holders than there were three years ago. Many of the suits are filed on behalf of those who own debt that has been bundled and resold to investors who hope to collect the money.
Richard Alderman, a consumer law professor at the University of Houston, said the resold debt is changing the nature of collection. "What companies used to let slide, now more and more debt collectors are buying the permission and ability to go after the money and are getting more aggressive," Alderman told the Chronicle.
The 5-4 Supreme Court ruling, Sprint v. APCC, held that collection companies had standing to sue on behalf of pay phone providers even though any recovered cash would go to the providers.
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