It has been a LONG TIME since the debt collection industry could pull out the “happy face” in terms of court decisions in favor of the industry!
The debt collection industry has been under siege with bad press, and mounting regulation. Add to that the ever growing population of professionals that claim they can get you out of debt without paying by exploiting loopholes, and the lot of the debt collection professional has become severely constrained over the last decade.
We now see movement within the courts that ads some rationality to the process. More cases are being found for the creditor as debtors attempt to use strangled interpretations of the law to get out of paying their legitimate debts.
We fully appreciate the statement by the court.
The Court stated: “Even though the least sophisticated debtor may be uninformed, naive, and gullible, the debtor’s interpretation of a collection notice cannot be bizarre or unreasonable.
This language begins to finally and slowly close the door on debtors that reach for the flimsiest of reasons to escape their responsibility. Certainly, a minority of the members of the collection industry have given our profession a black eye through strong arm and deceptive practices. The majority of us, however, are legitimate hard working and honorable practitioners, dedicated to protecting the rights of the creditor.
For too long, the collection industry has been held hostage by “bizarre and unreasonable” challenges to the collection process to escape a debt that is legitimately owed.
There is a fantastic article on the Inside ARM website that goes in depth into the doctrine of the “least sophisticated debtor” and the dynamics of this turning in the courts attitude towards legitimate debt collection practices.
http://www.insidearm.com/daily/debt-collection-news/debt-collection/the-least-sophisticated-debtor-is-getting-more-sophisticated-and-has-an-improved-memory-too/