Frederick J. Hanna &Associates P.C. (the Firm), was a law firm that represented credit-card issuers and debt buyers, that is, companies that purchase portfolios of defaulted loans. Over a four-year period, the Firm filed more than 350,000 (yes, 350,000) debt collection lawsuits. Yet the firm only had about a dozen lawyers.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (the Bureau) alleged that the Firm’s lawyers were not actually doing the legal work. How could they be? One attorney signed about 138,000 lawsuits in a two-0year period. Assuming this one lawyer did nothing bur review collectionsuits for eight hours a day, five days aweek, every week of the year without vacation, he would literally have spent less than a minute on each suit.

Instead of lawyers, the Firm used an automated system and support staff to decide which cases to file and then to draft the pleadings. The Firm also routinely filed affidavits asserting that the debts were valid. But these sworn statements were made by people with no knowledge of or connection to the cases.

The Bureau filed suit alleging that the Firm had violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The Firm filed a motion to dismiss the complaint. 

Questions:

1. Did the Firm violate the FDCPA?Should the motion to dismiss be granted?

2. Was it possible for the law firm to have properly reviewed and filed as many lawsuits as it did?

3. Why was it misleading that an attorney did not review each case before a lawsuit was filed?