9th Cir. Holds Mere Reliance on Contract Provision Not Enough for FDCPA ‘Bona Fide Error’ Defense

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on the Maurice Wutscher blog and is republished here with permission.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit recently held that a debt collector cannot use the “bona fide error” defense to shield itself from liability under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by merely (1) requiring its creditor clients to provide accurate account information, and (2) requesting verification of the account information from its creditor client, but not waiting to receive a response before trying to collect the debts.