Members of ACA’s leadership, including the Board of Directors and MAP Committee, will share their insights on voicemail messages, call frequency and validation notices in the second and third webinars in the series.
10/5/2020 9:00
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to release its long-awaited debt collection rule this year, and ACA International is ready. The release of the final rule signals the biggest development in the accounts receivable management (ARM) industry since the passage of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act more than 40 years ago.
ACA’s panel of experts is standing by to quickly review the comprehensive rule and will be providing detailed analysis and compliance resources.
As part of that process, ACA is planning 11 daily ACA Huddle webinars complimentary for members sponsored by Hinshaw & Culberston LLP, Ontario Systems, Venable LLP and RevSpring Inc. Registration is open now and the webinars—for ACA members only—will be held on consecutive weekdays within 24 to 48 hours after the rule is released.
Here is a look at the second and third webinars in the series and featured speakers:
Limited Content Voicemail Message and Call Frequency
The CFPB’s proposed debt collection rule released in May 2019 addressed several issues ACA sought clarity on, including the use of voicemail messages, text messages and email. ACA is pleased that the CFPB chose to address the use of modern technology and communication, which have long been a source of great frustration for debt collectors.
This webinar will focus on initial analysis of those components in the final debt collection rule from speakers David Kaminski, partner at Carlson & Messer LLP in Los Angeles; Rick Perr, co-managing partner of the Philadelphia office of Kaufman?Dolowich?&?Voluck?LLP and ACA’s board advocacy chair; and Jay Gonsalves, president, Action Collection Agencies Inc. of Boston and ACA Revenue Systems.
At Carlson & Messer, Kaminski is the chair of the financial services law practice where he represents banks, creditors, asset buyers and debt collectors in the defense of claims brought under all federal and state consumer protection statutes. He manages the nationwide litigation for numerous financial institutions and has helped shape the law affecting the rights of creditors, collection agencies and asset buyers, throughout the U.S.
Kaminski is also a regular speaker on legal, regulatory and compliance topics at ACA’s conferences and webinars and is a past chair of the Members Attorney Program (MAP) Committee from 2014-2016. He was appointed to ACA’s Regulatory Committee for 2013/14 and was elected a member of the MAP Delegates Committee for 2013-2015. He was also the recipient of the 2016 ACA Attorney of the Year Designation, the 2019 ACA Education Foundation award recipient, and the 2016 ACA International Attorney of the Year. In 2019, he was recognized among the CollectTECH Top 50 U.S. receivables professionals.
Perr is a nationally recognized authority and lecturer on creditors’ rights, representing creditors, law firms and agencies against individual and class-action allegations under federal and state consumer protection laws, including the FDCPA, TCPA and FCRA. He attended the May 2019 debt collection town hall in Philadelphia with ACA staff and members when the proposed rule was released.
He also advises individuals on matters related to compliance in the ARM industry, including implementation and auditing of policies and procedures, especially in adherence with governmental regulatory bodies, such as the CFPB.
He was elected to ACA’s Board of Directors in 2012 and served as 2017/18 ACA president. Perr works on the board of the Mid-Atlantic Collectors Association and has served as the state compliance chair for both New Jersey and Pennsylvania. He has earned ACA’s Fellow and Scholar designations, as well as the MAP Designation Award.
Gonsalves has been a professional in the ARM industry for more than 30 years and has been actively involved in ACA at both the local and national levels. He was elected to ACA’s Executive Committee as treasurer in 2005 and served as ACA’s 2008/09 president.
He most recently chaired ACA’s Federal Affairs Committee. In the past, he has chaired the Legislative, Healthcare Services Program and Interstate committees, and served on several others. He earned ACA’s International Fellowship of Credit and Collection Executives, Master Credit Executive, Professional Collection Specialist and Trainer Specialist designations, and is an ACA Certified Instructor. Gonsalves received ACA’s James K. Erickson Continuous Service Award in 2011 and Member of the Year Award in 2013.
He has volunteered a lot of his time to the New England Collectors Association throughout the years, including a stint as president. Most recently he served as the unit’s legislative co-chair.
Validation Notices
The CFPB’s proposed debt collection rule also provided more clarity on validation notices, including a model form for the validation notice. Speakers in this webinar, Eileen Bitterman, compliance officer/shareholder at Weltman Weinberg & Reis Co LPA in Cleveland; Mike Frost, partner, Malone Frost Martin PLLC in Dallas; and Scott Purcell, president of ACA and Professional Credit Service in Springfield, Oregon, will also focus on initial analysis of those components in the final debt collection rule.
Bitterman spoke on this topic during a webinar and episode of ACA Cast after the proposed rule was released last year and attended the May 2019 debt collection town hall.
Bitterman is currently serving as chair of the MAP Committee and serves as an elected representative on the Council of Delegates for the Ohio State Bar Association and has previously served in that role for MAP. She is also a member of the Cleveland State University Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Board of Visitors and serves on the Joint Bar Admissions Committee and Appeals Subcommittee of the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association.
She is a member of ACA’s new Education Council representing the MAP committee.
Purcell, ACA’s 2020/21 president, has presented at several ACA events, volunteered with multiple ACA committees—chairing ACA’s Budget and Audit Committee—and earned the Fellow, Scholar, Healthcare Collection Management and Professional Collection Specialist designations. He was elected to the ACA Board of Directors in 2017 and served as 2018/19 treasurer and 2019/20 president-elect.
Purcell believes all agencies can engage with their legislators, especially at the state level. He played an integral role in the Institute for Collection Leadership’s development of the “Collect the Truth” campaign (www.collectthetruth.org), and believes agencies of all sizes can use this resource in telling the story of the significant impact the collection industry has, especially to legislators. He believes strongly if we don’t educate our legislators on the important role we play in our credit-based economy, no one else will, and then we’re at risk of rules that will hurt our businesses, consumers and the clients we serve.
Register for ACA’s upcoming webinars on the CFPB debt collection rule, available only for members, now. For CFPB and ACA advocacy updates, log in to your My ACA profile on acainternational.org to subscribe to ACA Daily and Member Alerts.