Gulley v. Markoff & Krasny

Summarized by Kurt Carlson , Carlson Dash LLC
14 years 2 months ago

Citation:

U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit, Case No. 11-2104 (Decided December 22, 2011)

Tag(s):

Ruling:

The 7th Circuit affirmed the District Court's ruling that fines, and the collection of them, do not constitute a debt under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The court interpreted the definition of debt, under the FDCPA, to be those debts incurred by a consensual transaction. Because a fine is a non-consensual transaction, the court concluded that fines levied are not debts as defined by the FDCPA.

Procedural context:

Per curiam affirmance of the the district court's ruling that the fines at issue did not constitute a debt. The court interpreted the definition of debt, under the FDCPA, to be those debts incurred by a consensual transaction. Because a fine is a non-consensual transaction, the court concluded that fines levied are not debts as defined by the FDCPA.

Facts:

A municipality levied fines against the appellant. The appellant alleges the firm representing the municipality committed Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) violations by: misrepresenting what was owed, failing to validate debts, communicating after told to stop, and general harassment.

Judge(s):

Flaum, Kanne, and Sykes

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