On October 7, 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (Massachusetts AG) announced a judgment obtained against a student loan debt relief company in Suffolk Superior Court for allegedly unlawful and predatory business practices. According to the AG, the company charged unlawful upfront and continuing fees to consumers, misrepresented the scope…
On September 29, 2020, the Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia (Virginia AG) announced a settlement with a Nashville-based open-end credit plan internet lender, resolving allegations that the lender violated Virginia laws in offering short-term loans. This settlement results from the Virginia AG’s allegations that the lender’s contracts with its consumers violated the Virginia Consumer Protection Act…
On September 14, 2020, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced that she secured protections for thousands of student borrowers who defaulted on student loans and who were allegedly subject to misleading and unlawful actions by one of the nation’s largest debt collectors. The settlement agreement resolves an investigation of…
On September 8, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and the New York State Attorney General announced they filed a complaint against five New York debt-collection companies, along with the individual owners and managers of the firms. The complaint, filed in the Western District of New York, alleges the…
On July 27, 2020, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that his office had obtained an important win in a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as part of the Office of Attorney General’s ongoing court battle with the nation’s second-largest servicer of federal and private…
On August 26, 2020, Michigan’s Attorney General announced that it had reached a $1.8 million settlement with an online car title loan company. The company is alleged to have sold online car loans to Michigan consumers with illegal interest rates in the triple digits, including rates as high as 231 percent. …
On August 21, 2020, Colorado’s Attorney General announced that the Denver District Court ruled in the state’s favor and found that a for-profit college violated the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (“CCPA”) and the Uniform Consumer Credit Code (“UCCC”) in operating its institutional loan program. The matter was initiated after a two-year investigation that…
On August 19, 2020, the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General announced that it had entered into a voluntary compliance agreement with a regional bank to stop allegedly aggressive auto loan debt collection practices. The agreement arose out of allegations made by the Pennsylvania AG that the bank engaged in unfair and manipulative practices,…
On August 18, 2020, the Colorado Attorney General (Colorado AG) announced a settlement with two bank and two non-bank lenders for allegedly exceeding state interest rate limits on consumer loans. The case resolves two cases that were originally filed in Denver District Court and have been pending since 2017. The…
On August 12, 2020, the Vermont Attorney General (Vermont AG) announced a settlement with an auto financing company related to alleged unfair or deceptive practices concerning the company’s subprime auto loans. According to the Vermont AG’s complaint, filed on August 7, 2020, the company engaged in unfair and deceptive practices in violation of the Vermont Consumer Protection Act, 9…
On August 4, 2020, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General (Pennsylvania AG) announced that it reached a settlement with a company providing financing to consumers seeking student-loan debt relief. According to the Pennsylvania AG, the company violated the Pennsylvania Consumer Protection Law and the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) through its alleged…
On July 30, 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General (Massachusetts AG) announced a settlement with a Nevada-based debt buyer regarding a portfolio of loan debt it purchased from a for-profit education company. The settlement resolves the Massachusetts AG’s allegations that, between 2010 and 2016, the for-profit education company misled students by…
On June 23, 2020, the New York Office of Attorney General (New York AG) announced that it reached a $17 million settlement with a mortgage originator and servicer. The New York AG alleged that the company violated New York’s mortgage servicing regulations, 3 N.Y.C.R.R. Part 419, by failing to make reasonable and…
On June 23, 2020, the New York Office of Attorney General (New York AG) announced that it reached a $3.6 million settlement with a national debt settlement company for allegedly violating the terms of a March 2011 settlement. Under the previous settlement, the company was alleged to have engaged in fraudulent or…
On June 11, 2020, the North Dakota Office of the Attorney General (AG) announced that it had entered into an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance agreement with a California-based debt relief company, under which the company agreed to issue refunds to North Dakota consumers and to cease doing business in North…
On June 22, 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General announced a settlement with a Florida-based mortgage loan servicer following an investigation into the servicer’s debt collection practices. Specifically, the settlement resolves allegations that the servicer made excessive calls to distressed homeowners and failed to provide written notice of their right to…
On June 5, 2020, the Attorney General for the District of Columbia (DC AG) announced that it had filed a complaint in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia against an online lender for allegedly making illegal loans to over 2,500 DC consumers in violation of the Consumer Protection…
On May 22, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (Mass AG) announced that they had filed a complaint against a credit repair company and the owner of the company in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, alleging that they had engaged in deceptive…
On May 19, 2020, a coalition of 34 state attorneys general announced a settlement of over $550 million with an auto financing company. The settlement is the result of a five year, multi-state investigation into the company’s subprime lending practices. The company is alleged to have used a sophisticated credit scoring…
On May 6, 2020, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, in ACA International v. Healey, Case No. 1:20-cv-10767-RGS, enjoined Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (AG Healey) from enforcing provisions of the emergency regulation, 940 CMR 35.00, et seq. (Regulation), prohibiting debt collection calls and initiating lawsuits during…