State exemption laws protect income and property from seizure once a court has ruled that a person owes a certain amount. Without exemption laws, debt collectors would be able to collect that amount by selling the person’s home or seizing their entire paycheck, bank account, car, or household goods. This issue brief outlines how states…
States, counties, and local governments can help protect immigrants, their families, and communities from financial exploitation and other consumer abuses.
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State debt collection efforts can conflict with state anti-poverty programs. This issue brief discusses how states that seize income tax refunds to collect debts owed to the state may also be seizing safety-net payments such as state Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) or Child Tax Credit (CTC) funds. States should follow California’s example to protect…
Read More about What States Can Do to Protect Low-Income Families When Collecting Government Debts
A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, H.R. 3213, Restoring Court Authority Over Litigation Action of 2025 (Fitzgerald, Barr, and Meuser), would harm consumers by removing important protections against abusive litigation conduct by attorneys. This bill would: Congress amended the FDCPA in 1986 to prevent abusive collection practices by attorneys. H.R. 3213 would protect attorneys…
The CFPB issued an advisory opinion to remind debt collectors that attempting to collect medical debts that are not owed and certain other tactics are unlawful under the FDCPA.
NCLC will pursue common-sense regulatory and legislative reforms to ensure fairness, fight fraud, and protect consumers in 2025.
This resource compiles a variety of materials that are relevant to consumer advocates working on policy reforms related to the collection of unsecured consumer debts (credit card debts, medical debt, etc.).
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When state advocates seek to increase protections for working people’s wages, opponents, broadly citing academic literature to support their position, often argue that increased protections for wages will decrease access to credit or increase the cost of credit. Upon closer inspection, however, many of these studies do not examine wage seizure at all, or, when…
Read More about No Clear Relationship Between Wage Seizure Protections and Access to Credit
SUPPORT Immediate Passage of H.D.2405/S.D.1209, An Act relative to fairness in debt collection
This issue brief considers what court-sponsored online dispute resolution (ODR) means for consumers who are sued in debt collection lawsuits by creditors collecting consumer debts and ways that courts may guard against potential problems. Court-sponsored ODR offers a way to resolve court cases online without ever setting foot in court. While ODR has been used…
