Law Firm Fined $1 Million For Abusive Debt-Collection

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has fined a law firm $1 million for filing tens of thousands of abusive debt-collection lawsuits for its client, a financial services company. The company itself was hit with an even larger penalty, $1.5 million. The law firm, said to be the largest debt collection firm in New Jersey, agreed to pay the fine without admitting the allegations, and issued a statement that lambasted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and what it called the CFPB’s own “unique interpretation” of applicable law. The CFPB alleged that the law firm filed lawsuits wholesale, either without sufficient review of relevant data or based on unreliable data.