A federal judge in Illinois has sent to trial a collection case involving subprime lender Consumer Portfolio Services. U.S. District Judge John Grady sided with plaintiffs Roslyn Griffith and Jerret Cain, who claimed that CPS used an autodialer to contact their cell phones with unauthorized calls and text messages.
At issue is a Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which prohibits calls to certain telephone numbers, including cell numbers, using an “automatic telephone dialing system,” except in an emergency or with the recipient’s “prior express consent.”
I can understand how a third-party collection agency might have trouble with the “prior express consent” issue, but don’t loan originators include language in their contracts that tells borrowers they could be contacted for collection efforts via the phone numbers ― whether cell phone or landline ― they provide? If not, I have a hunch we’ll see a lot more of these cases crop up.
Click here to read Judge Grady’s 11-page opinion.
Union wage cuts, interim purchase incentives, additional lending capital, and drastic product re-designs are the only salvation for this industry at this time in history.
The FCC ruled in Jan 2008 that if the borrower provides the lender their mobile number when they take out a loan, they are also providing their consent to be autodialed or messaged at that number. Since this point was not raised by CPS in their motion for summary judgement, I suspect they had obtained the borrower’s mobile number through some other means (skip tracing, ANI capture) or the borrower had withdrawn their consent. Either that or CPS needs to get new lawyers.