{"id":380,"date":"2011-12-02T20:13:02","date_gmt":"2011-12-02T20:13:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/?p=380"},"modified":"2012-09-12T06:37:26","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T06:37:26","slug":"do-you-need-actual-damages-to-file-a-lawsuit-for-a-violation-under-the-fair-debt-collections-practices-act-fdcpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/2011\/12\/do-you-need-actual-damages-to-file-a-lawsuit-for-a-violation-under-the-fair-debt-collections-practices-act-fdcpa\/","title":{"rendered":"Do You Need Actual Damages to File a Lawsuit for a Violation under the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA)"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Ryan C. Wood<\/a><\/p>\n

On November 28, 2011, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding this very issue.\u00a0 The FDCPA allows for recovery of any actual damages, statutory damages sustained and reasonable attorneys\u2019 fees and costs by an individual resulting from a debt collectors violations and in a case involving an individual, any additional damages as the court may allow, not exceeding $1,000.<\/p>\n

The issue being heard by the Supreme Court involves whether an individual has the right or standing to file a lawsuit if actual damages are not pleaded or proved.\u00a0\u00a0 The FDCPA is a federal law and to sue someone for a violation of the FDCPA they must have standing.\u00a0 To prove you have standing you must show that there is a connection between what an alleged wrongdoer did and yourself, and you were harmed as a result.\u00a0 If there is no standing then the complaint will be dismissed.\u00a0 The argument being advocated to the United States Supreme Court is that many plaintiffs do not have standing to lawsuits under the FDCPA because they do not and cannot prove there was an actual injury to them for the violation of the FDCPA.<\/p>\n

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act outlines many different types of violations.\u00a0 For example, if the debt collector calls you 50 times a day over and over again harassing you and causing you unwarranted stress and aggravation, this is a violation of the FDCPA. \u00a0What are the actual damages though?\u00a0 Did you get fired from your job because of it and therefore are seeking lost wages?\u00a0 Or what if the debt collector called your mother and told her they were going to throw you in jail if you did not pay the debt back to them?\u00a0 This is a violation also, but again, what are the actual damages?\u00a0 Most courts allow the recovery of statutory damages without having to prove there were actual damages.<\/p>\n

It will be interesting to see how the United States Supreme Court chooses to rule on this issue.\u00a0 The whole point in passing the FDCPA is to protect consumers from the unfair and deceptive tactics used by collection agencies to obtain payment for debts.\u00a0 A violation of the law is a violation and therefore that should be damage enough.\u00a0 If consumers are not allowed to file lawsuits for the mere violation of the FDCPA no matter how insignificant, then why have the law at all?\u00a0 The FDCPA would become a meaningless set of guidelines to be followed while debt collectors know they can do whatever they want without consequence.\u00a0 For the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to protect consumers and operate as it was intended, any technical violation of the law has to be an injury to that person giving them the right to file a lawsuit.<\/p>\n

If you are struggling with debt or have been abused by a debt collection agency, please contact us to meet with our experienced bankruptcy lawyers<\/a> and Bay Area bankruptcy attorneys<\/a> to schedule a free consultation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It will be interesting to see how the United States Supreme Court chooses to rule on this issue. The whole point in passing the FDCPA is to protect consumers from the unfair and deceptive tactics used by collection agencies to obtain payment for debts. A violation of the law is a violation and therefore that should be damage enough. If consumers are not allowed to file lawsuits for the mere violation of the FDCPA no matter how insignificant, then why have the law at all? The FDCPA would become a meaningless set of guidelines to be followed while debt collectors know they can do whatever they want without consequence. For the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to protect consumers and operate as it was intended, any technical violation of the law has to be an injury to that person giving them the right to file a lawsuit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[38],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westcoastbk.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}