FTC Seeking Public Comment on Debt Collection Litigation for Workshop

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) last week put out a call for public comment in advance of its two-day workshop on debt collection litigation and arbitration practices to be held in early August.

The FTC will be hosting a workshop in Chicago – formally titled “Protecting Consumers in Debt Collection Litigation and Arbitration: A Roundtable Discussion” – to discuss policy issues surrounding the accounts receivable management industry’s use of the legal system. The event, scheduled for August 5-6, will be the first in a series on the topic, according to the FTC.

The event follows up on the FTC’s February 2009 Report, Collecting Consumer Debts: The Challenges of Change – A Workshop Report, which recommended that the debt collection regulatory system in the U.S. should be reformed and modernized. The report also announced that the FTC would hold regional roundtables to help develop policy recommendations related to debt collection litigation and arbitration proceedings against individual consumers. The Chicago event, hosted on the campus of Northwestern University Law School, will be the first of these roundtable discussions for state court judges, government officials, debt collectors, consumer advocates, academics and other stakeholders.

Any party interested in submitting written comments or original research on the matter should do so before August 1. Comments can be submitted electronically through the FTC’s Web site.

The workshop is free and open to the public.

Earlier this year, the FTC noted in its FDCPA report that laws and regulations that govern debt collection litigation should be addressed and even modified (“FTC Proposes Significant Changes to FDCPA in Workshop Report,” Feb. 27).  But because of limited information, the FTC would need to convene additional meetings to develop a policy recommendation.

It is unclear what current practices the FTC is looking to change or what direction its policy might head. In the four months since the commission released its recommendations on the FDCPA, there have been significant changes. For example, one of the primary recommendations saw the FDCPA continuing to be administered by the FTC. But recently, there have been calls for a new consumer protection agency to take responsibility for debt collection laws (“Proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency May Oversee FDCPA Enforcement,” June 25).

More information on the workshop can be found at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/debtcollectround/index.shtm.