Illinois Collection Agency Act – Scope

Listen to this article

Civil

7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: EASTERBROOK, MANION, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Illinois Collection Agency Act – Scope

No.  13-2266 Joseph Hawthorne v. NCO Financial Systems, Inc.

No. 13-2264 Rocio Galvan v. NCO Portfolio Management, Inc.

Passive debt buyers qualify as collection agencies as defined under the Act.

“In light of Trice II, the original briefs in this case are now largely obsolete. The parties have filed Rule 28(j) letters agreeing that the state supreme court’s decision in Trice II means that NCO Portfolio acted as a collection agency during the class period. We add our agreement to theirs. The state high court’s decision makes it clear that passive debt buyers using third parties to collect the debt do indeed qualify as collection agencies under section 3 of the Act—under either subsection 3(b) or subsection 3(d)—and this was so even before 2013, when the ICAA was amended to add a specific definition of “debt buyer” to section 2. (Trice II was decided under the pre-2013 version of the Act.)”

Reversed and Remanded

Full Text

Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing attorney at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.