Philadelphia Establishes New Consumer Credit Card Collection Diversion Program

Highlights

• The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas has established a new Consumer Credit Card Diversion Pilot Program that aims to fast-track consumer credit card debt collection actions.
• Plaintiffs filing credit card debt collection actions must submit and serve a certification form verifying key information about the debt.
• The program diverts eligible cases to an early conciliation conference before mandatory arbitration, with the goal of bringing parties together sooner, encouraging resolutions and payment plans, and reducing delays caused by service and procedural issues.

The Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas recently began a Consumer Credit Card Diversion Pilot Program to fast-track consumer credit card debt collection actions that have occupied one-third of the court's civil arbitration docket in the last five years. The pilot aims to reduce the resolution time of these actions from more than a year to a few months by requiring debt collection plaintiffs