Financial Consumer Protections

We have successfully advocated for and defended numerous protections related to lending, and we continue to fight efforts to lower regulations and increase fees for companies seeking to make predatory loans.

We also helped to enact state regulations of the debt-buyer industry, making North Carolina the first state in the country to rein in the collection activity of companies that buy up defaulted consumer debts for pennies on the dollar and then seek to collect on the entire face value of the purchased debts. When the nation’s second-largest debt buyer failed to comply with North Carolina’s requirements, the NC Justice Center brought a series of cases to force the company to stop violating the law and to recover damages for North Carolina residents.

Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC v. Houston
In 2018, the North Carolina Justice Center obtained a $4 million settlement in a class action lawsuit against debt-buyer Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC (PRA). The case, Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC v. Houston (Iredell County case no 12-CVS-642), involved claims that PRA violated North Carolina’s debt collection law by sending written notices of intent to file collection lawsuits to persons in North Carolina and by filing collection lawsuits in North Carolina without (1) having sufficient proof of the amount of the debt allegedly owed and without sending that proof to debtors prior to filing a collection lawsuit, and (2) by failing to provide sufficient proof that it owned the debt when it filed collection lawsuits. The NC Justice Center brought the class action lawsuit along with attorneys Travis Collum, Suzanne Begnoche, and Adrian Lapas. In addition to paying $4 million into a settlement fund for distribution to class members, PRA also agreed to dismiss all lawsuits that were pending against class members.