"Most Active" Consumer Attorney Sergei Lemberg Applauds Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Focus on Debt Collection Practices
Stamford, CT (PRWEB) July 11, 2013 -- Fair debt attorney Sergei Lemberg (http://www.stopcollector.com) applauded the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for putting debt collection agencies on notice, providing consumers with debt collection action letters, and expanding its scope of consumer complaints to include grievances related to debt collection. "This is a victory for consumers who don't know where to turn when they are victimized by abusive debt collectors," said Lemberg. "It should also be a wake-up call to debt collection agencies that there is a new sheriff in town."
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), which was created under the Dodd-Frank Act, issued two bulletins on July 10 that outlined the responsibilities of third-party debt collectors to not only abide by the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), but for both first- and third-party collectors to follow the provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act that prohibit unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts or practices (UDAAPs). According to Lemberg, who was named the "most active" consumer attorney of 2012 by debt collection industry insider WebRecon LLC, "The CFPB broke new ground by making it clear that Dodd-Frank's prohibition against UDAAPs extends to original creditors, and not simply the third-party debt collectors covered by the FDCPA."
Lemberg, who has been educating consumers about their rights under the FDCPA via his firm's website, StopCollector.com, and his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/StopCollector), was equally enthusiastic about the CFPB's new "Action Letter" templates that consumers can use when dealing with debt collectors. "Our firm receives a tremendous number of inquiries from consumers who don't understand how to dispute a debt, how to get a debt collector to stop calling them, or even how to get more information about a debt they're not sure they owe," Lemberg said. "These templates help consumers communicate with debt collection agencies, and also provide a paper trail should a consumer decide to sue a debt collection agency for violations of the FDCPA."
Against the backdrop of the Federal Trade Commission's July 9 announcement that it had garnered the largest civil penalty ever ($3.2 million) against a third-party debt collector, Lemberg reserved his most emphatic praise for the CFPB's acceptance of consumers' debt collection complaints. Beginning July 10, the CFPB expanded the types of consumer complaints it accepted to include those about debt collection agencies. According to Lemberg, "The Federal Trade Commission has always accepted debt collection complaints, but only for the purpose of undertaking enforcement actions and reporting the complaints to Congress. The CFPB goes several steps further, in that it asks the companies to respond to the complaints and expects the complaints to be closed within 60 days."
Lemberg concluded, "This is a red-letter day for consumers. The CFPB is sure to become a dogged regulator of the debt collection industry, and will curb some of the most egregious abuses."
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About Lemberg & Associates, LLC
The attorneys at Lemberg & Associates, LLC represent consumers in Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and lemon law cases, among others. Sergei Lemberg can brief you about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, remedies available to consumers who are victims of debt collector harassment, and other relevant issues.
For more information, contact:
Sergei Lemberg
Lemberg & Associates, LLC
http://www.StopCollector.com
http://www.LembergLaw.com
203.653.2250
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Sergei Lemberg, Lemberg & Associates, http://stopcollector.com, 203-653-2250 5500, [email protected]
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