What do you do when you have a judgment and need to collect? Well, for many creditors and collection agencies, the man to call is John Halpern, a 40-year veteran of commercial collections in the Twin Cities. Minnesota Litigator sat down for an interview where he gave some of his strategies for stopping debtors from […]
Having authored the Credit & Collections Chapter of the Minnesota Business Torts Deskbook (focusing on the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), the Truth-in-Lending Act, et al.), I again reach a bit beyond Minnesota and Eighth Circuit law to report an outside development — a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals decision reversing summary judgment […]
In an unpublished Minnesota Court of Appeals decision, the Minnesota Court of Appeals affirmed a complete victory for defendant/debt collector/law firm Messerli & Kramer P.A. in a case brought by the Legal Aid Society of Minneapolis and a sister case by Lori Swanson, Minnesota’s Attorney General. Messerli & Kramer had sought and been awarded default […]
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, FDCPA, can be a harsh and unforgiving statute for debt collectors, setting out fairly exacting standards on acceptable and unacceptable conduct related to debt collection (and providing for fee-shifting). (Some of the FDCPA’s rules are (or should be) nearly self-evident — it is improper to make empty threats, harassing […]