Photo of Bryan A. Fratkin

Bryan leads the firm’s class action practice group, focusing his national practice on consumer financial services litigation under the various "alphabet soup" statutes. He represents large financial institutions involved in credit card, auto finance, banking, and mortgage litigation, alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, Truth in Lending Act, Credit Repair Organizations Act, Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Bankruptcy Discharge Injunction and Stay, and state law consumer protection statutes. He also represents financial institutions and business clients in disputes that include allegations of fraud, conspiracy, civil RICO, and breach of contract. More recently, Bryan has successfully defended employers in background check class actions, alleging violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act’s standalone and adverse action disclosure requirements.

The recent final rule (the “Rule”) implementing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”) only directly governs parties defined as “debt collectors” by the FDCPA, principally meaning those who collect delinquent debt for others.[1]  However, this Rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, accompanied by a 560-page Preamble, will also likely influence the collection activities of “creditors” — i.e., those collectors that fall outside that “debt collector” definition — in various ways.[2]  The Rule also will affect how creditors should work with the debt collectors they hire.  In this Alert, we focus specifically on these different impacts of the Rule on creditors.  The Rule will take effect one year from the date it is published in the Federal Register.
Continue Reading What Creditors Need to Know About the Final Debt Collection Rule

Case Developments April 12, 2018 – May 1, 2018 

In this edition of our Credit Card Litigation update, we summarize a decision out of the Seventh Circuit where the court granted a credit card issuer’s motion to compel arbitration and a decision out of the Sixth Circuit where the Court granted a judgment creditor’s motion