Hunstein: The Eleventh Circuit Cavalry Arrives

Executive Summary

Third time's the charm? Our Financial Services Litigation and Financial Services & Products Groups take stock of the Eleventh Circuit's surprise decision to rehear Hunstein en banc, throwing hundreds of Fair Debt Collection Practices Act cases based on its previous two decisions into limbo.

• Why did the circuit judges decide to vacate the prior decision and rehear en banc?
• What does it mean for the debt collection industry's standard practice with third-party vendors?
• What's next for the case – will Section 1692c(b) be an issue for the en banc court to decide?

Readers of a certain age (or at least readers who were one-time city dwellers and cigarette smokers) may recall the cynical strategy of lighting a cigarette to induce the arrival of a desperately needed, late-running bus. "This is bad," the thinking went. "But if the fates punish me a little more by wasting a cigarette, at least I brought the bus." When a bus arrived just after