Daily Digest - August 4, 2025

Brought to you by: TCN | By Mike Gibb

Author

Mike Gibb
August 04, 2025

🎂🎁 Happy Birthday to: Bill Thaxton of Thaxton Consulting, Ken Duncan of Pioneer, Bryana Watson, and Luke Fischer of Belvista.

🎂🎁 Belated Happy Birthday to: F. Brett Baccari of Shark Law Offices, (August 3), David Reid of RMA International (August 2), and Roger Lai of Avtal (August 2).

🎉 Congratulations to: James Cecil, who joined Complete Recovery as Vice President of Operations.

More than 35 speakers have confirmed for ComplianceCon. Check out who will be speaking and more at Compliance-Con.com.

Appeals Court Overturns Ruling, Says Arbitration Agreement Must Be Enforced in FCRA Case

  • Arbitration is all the rage these days. This time, it is the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit weighing in, overturning a district court ruling denying a defendant’s motion to compel in a Fair Credit Reporting Act case after the plaintiff complained the defendant failed to ensure the accuracy of what it was reporting and for not conducting a reasonable investigation into his dispute.

  • More details here.

A MESSAGE FROM TCN

TODAY‘S WEBINAR

UPCOMING WEBINARS

BK Filings Climb for Ninth Straight Quarter, Up 12% YOY

  • Bankruptcy filings continue to rise, increasing 11.5% year-over-year for the 12-month period ending June 30, according to newly released data from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. A total of 542,529 cases were filed, up from 486,613 during the same period last year.

  • More details here.

Preemption Shields Credit Union From Returned Check Fee Lawsuit

  • The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a consumer who alleged a credit union engaged in unfair practices when it charged a returned check fee even though he was not at fault, ruling the credit union is entitled to preemption from the state law it was accused of violating.

  • More details here.

Compliance Digest – August 4

  • Seven different compliance experts -- Michael Chapman, Lauren Burnette, Joann Needleman, Chuck Dodge, Jay Tillman, Virginia Bell Flynn, and Jessica Klander, provide insight and perspective and context on recent court rulings, and new rules and regulations, to make sure you know what you need to know and what adjustments you may need to make to your operation.

  • More details here.

  • This series is sponsored by Bedard Law Group

WORTH NOTING: A list of the best hospitals from across the country, according to U.S. News ... TrueCaller is shutting down its call recording service on iPhones next month ... Half of ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations in the past 12 months were successful ... Consumers are getting thrifty again, looking for generic brands and bulk buying ... Your credit score may have something to do with where you grew up ... Breaking through the marketing on the importance of electrolyte drinks ... Two judges had to withdraw rulings after it was revealed they were based on AI hallucinations ... If you are using ChatGPT or other AI tools, here is who can see what you are doing with them.

Music Monday, part I

Music Monday, Part II

Webinar Recap: How to Parse Disputes, Cease Requests, and Other Vague Comments from Consumers

Deciphering ambiguous consumer communications has become one of the most complex operational and legal challenges for collection agencies, lenders, and servicers. In this webinar, a panel of compliance attorneys and industry experts shared real-world strategies for identifying whether a message is a dispute, a cease request, a validation demand—or a combination of all three—and how to respond in a compliant and defensible way.

Speakers emphasized that treating every vague message as a full dispute or cease request is not always practical or necessary, but failing to correctly categorize it can trigger regulatory issues, lawsuits, or reputational harm. Instead, panelists recommended developing a triage-based framework that blends automation and human review. NLP tools can be used to flag obvious disputes, but humans should handle nuance and context, particularly when dealing with potential “setup” letters from credit repair organizations.

They also discussed operational considerations such as account balance, client expectations, resource allocation, and litigation risk when deciding which accounts to shut down versus which to continue pursuing. Experienced personnel remain critical to recognizing genuine consumer engagement versus potential traps. Ultimately, compliance procedures must be flexible, conservative, and continuously updated as new tactics emerge.

🧠 Key Takeaways:

  • Implement a tiered triage process: Use technology to quickly categorize clear disputes or cease requests, while routing ambiguous communications to compliance staff for review.

  • Prioritize risk over recovery for questionable accounts: Recognize when a vague or bait-like message is more likely to result in litigation than payment, and consider closing or suppressing the account.

  • Continually update policies and train staff: Collect and analyze new patterns of consumer communications, and maintain flexible, conservative procedures to stay ahead of evolving strategies used by consumers and credit repair entities.

💡 For more events like this, visit accountrecovery.net or register for ComplianceCon—the industry’s only event devoted exclusively to compliance—this September in Nashville.

The Daily Digest is sponsored by TCN