It’s been almost 17 months after the initial ruling on the matter of Hunstein vs. Preferred Collection & Management Services, Inc. In its aftermath, many question swirled as to its potential implications. Jumping the gun on finality, this decision had spawned a wave of similar lawsuits nationwide in it’s aftermath. Well, it’s all over now that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sitting en banc has reversed the original decision.
Read the New Decision Here!
On September 9th, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit sitting en banc released their long awaited decision and has reversed the original decision on Hunstein vs. Preferred Collection & Management Services, Inc.
The initial decision on the Hunstein v. Preferred Collection and Management Services, Inc., case, on first impression, found that the defendant’s transmittal of a consumer’s personal information to its letter vendor constituted a prohibited third-party communication “in connection with the collection of any debt” within the meaning of section 1692c(b) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”).
However, the en banc court, disagreed with the standing analysis and concluded that the plaintiff did not have Article III standing. Writing for the consenting majority, Judge Britt, concluded that there is not a close fit between the FDCPA provision at issue and public disclosure of private facts because that tort requires publicity of highly offensive facts.
They further held that in this case, there was no publicity, which requires disclosure to the public at large and not just one private party. They further agreed that the communications were not of highly offensive information. Missing these essential elements of the tort, the plaintiff was found to be lacking standing and the district court was correct in dismissing the case.
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