ACA’s Kari Barber shares her position on Rotkiske v. Klemm with Bloomberg Law.
10/18/2019 9:00
ACA International’s legal team has a watchful eye on Rotkiske v. Klemm, an FDCPA case that found its way to the U.S. Supreme Court Wednesday. In an article published by Bloomberg Law, ACA’s Corporate Counsel Kari Barber summed up the industry’s stance in the statement, “Whatever the decision ends up being, hopefully they will provide some clarity and security to not only defendants, but plaintiffs as well.”
The central issue in the case is whether the discovery rule, which states that the statute of limitations only begins in a case when the plaintiff learns of a potential violation, applies to the FDCPA even if the statute itself does not address the question, Bloomberg Law Assistant Managing Editor Evan Weinberger wrote in the article titled, “High Court Must Define Meaning of Silence in Debt Collection Case.”
ACA provided amicus (friend of the court) support through its Industry Advancement Fund in support of the respondent. In its brief, ACA argued that certainty about potential liability is of paramount importance to the debt collection industry, whose efforts annually result in the recovery of billions of dollars that are retuned to creditors. Expanding the scope of liability beyond the one-year limitations period would substantially increase litigation costs arising from claims brought well beyond the plainly-defined limitations period.
To read more on the case, check out “Argument Preview: A Conflict Between Plain Text and Background Rules,” a SCOTUS Blog piece published by ACA Daily Tuesday, Oct. 15. ACA’s legal team also filed an amicus brief on the case, available here.
*Pictured above: ACA Corporate Counsel Kari Barber.