By Constant – 11th Circuit’s Hunstein Decision: How can you prepare?

The 11th Circuit’s far-reaching decision in Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc. has created panic for those companies that fall within the FDCPA’s definition of “debt collector” and for the creditors that use them. Most back office teams are scrambling to operationalize worst case scenarios with passionate pleas to secure funding, hire-up and triage.

If upheld, a third-party collection agency cannot send personal information about a debt, for the purposes of collecting a debt, to a third-party vendor that is not authorized for such communication and disclosure. If reversed, covered parties will still have to comply with separate standards pertaining to the proposed debt collection rule.

In this article, Carissa Robb, President of Constant, lays out what you can do to prepare for the potential fallout of this case, and the 200 plus copycat cases flooding the court systems nationwide, including:

• Exploring alternatives to sending collection letters
• Looking at what you are sharing for PII
• Defining your governance and control framework - and implementing it
• Dusting off UDAAP and training your people

Access the full article here

Author Bio:

Carissa Robb serves as President & COO of Constant AI, a digital loan servicing & loss mitigation provider. She most recently served as Senior Vice President and Head of US Loan Servicing for TD Bank, responsible for servicing a $150 billion dollar portfolio of Auto, Consumer, Residential and Commercial accounts. She joined TD Bank in 2009 overseeing collections channels and loss mitigation programs for distressed real estate, as well as servicing in executive roles responsible for audit remediation and governance and control frameworks for TD Bank’s loan servicing and collections divisions. Carissa can be reached at crobb@constant.ai or found on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/carissa-robb-a5a26615.