Lessons Learned from Bank of America's Record-Breaking TCPA Settlement

Bank of America has been getting a bad rap lately; but it’s not like the company is doing much to help itself. The bank recently agreed to pay $32 million to settle multiple proposed class action lawsuits over harassing debt collection calls made to customers’ cell phones. According to Reuters, this is the largest cash payout ever for a lawsuit concerning the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

The settlement resolves proposed class action suits filed on behalf of 7.7 million credit card and mortgage loan customers. So in the end, each consumer listed on the lawsuits can expect a payout of a little more than four dollars.

As it turns out, Bank of America is not alone in fighting its uphill legal battle against TCPA complaints and violations. Although it wasn’t originally written to apply to debt collectors, the TCPA is poised to eclipse the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act as the biggest legal headache for debt collectors. 2013 isn’t even over, and TCPA suits are up 65 percent compared to last year. In August alone, TCPA suits rose 15.4 percent from July and 72 percent when compared to August 2012.

Get the latest “news you can use” about TCPA compliance with our 60-minute webinar Translating TCPA for Debt Collectors – the first in our new insideCompliance series – featuring debt collection attorneys John Rossman and David Kaminski. John Rossman has tackled TCPA concerns in numerous articles for insideARM, and as part of his audio blog The Debt Collection Drill.  Through his work with ACA International and beyond, David Kaminski has established himself as the industry expert on TCPA. You’ll have the chance to ask both Mr. Rossman and Mr. Kaminsky questions during the live Q&A portion of the webinar.

You’ll learn:

• How the rules have changed around “consent requirements”
• How recent court rulings shape industry compliance w/TCPA
• Common problems with calling cell phones, and how to solve them
• And much more!