Debt Collectors: Remember Opposing Counsel Is Not Competent

Well, at least that is the case as the Eleventh Circuit rules on communications between attorneys. Recently, I read a warning from a colleague about the expansion of liability for creditor's lawyers under the FDCPA. In Bishop v. Ross, Early & Bonan, P.A., the Eleventh Circuit reversed the dismissal of an FDCPA complaint brought by a homeowner whose attorney received a letter from the HOA's counsel regarding unpaid assessments. At issue was a purported violation based on a faulty disclosure under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(a)(4). The homeowner's counsel received this purported defective notice and within two months filed an FDCPA complaint on behalf of the homeowner for the indirect communication. But if her counsel had sufficient competency to know that the notice failed to state the law correctly so that he could meet his Rule 11 obligations before filing the FDCPA claim, how could the purported misstatement of the law be "false, deceptive, or misleading" within the meaning