Indiana District Court Grants Partial Summary Judgment For Defendant In FDCPA Case

In Kinnick v. Med-1 Solutions LLC, an Indiana district court granted partial summary judgment for the defendant in a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) case. In its holding, the court emphasized that requesting that collection communications cease before the debt collector has active accounts for collection is insufficient to sustain a claim under § 1692c(c).

In that case, the plaintiff incurred medical debts with Community Health Gallahue Behavioral (Community Health), with the defendant assigned to collect on the two accounts on April 24, 2019. The defendant received a notice of attorney representation from the plaintiffs on February 8, 2019 (requesting that collection communications cease), and a notice of the plaintiff's bankruptcy petition filed in March 2019 (including the two relevant medical debt accounts listed above). At the time it received the notice of the plaintiff's bankruptcy petition, the defendant did not have any active accounts for