Commercial Litigation Update

In June, Maine and Oregon joined a growing list of states that now prohibit the reporting of medical debt to a consumer reporting agency.

On June 9, 2025, the governor of Maine signed into law LD558, which amends the Maine Fair Credit Reporting Act to prohibit medical creditors, debt collectors and debt buyers from reporting a consumer’s medical debt to a consumer reporting agency. Under the Maine law, a “medical creditor” is defined as “an entity that provides health care services and to whom a consumer incurs medical debt or an entity that provided health care services to a consumer and to whom the consumer previously owed medical debt if the medical debt has been purchased by one or more debt buyers.” Additionally, the Maine law forbids consumer reporting agencies from reporting medical debt on consumer reports. Consumers whose medical debt is reported in violation of the new amendments can seek civil remedies against the medical creditor, debt collector, debt buyer, or consumer reporting agency that reported the medical debt pursuant to the Maine Fair Credit Reporting Act for actual damages, attorneys’ fees and costs, and either treble damages or statutory damages depending on whether the violation was willful or negligent.

On January 7, 2025, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) published a final Rule (the “Rule”) that prohibits consumer reporting agencies from including individuals’ medical debt on consumer credit reports. The CFPB states that this Rule, which amends Regulation V of the Fair Credit Reporting Act, aims to ease financial burdens placed on individual consumers seeking loans by preventing medical debt from negatively impacting credit scores. Additionally, the Rule prohibits creditors from considering consumer medical debt information in credit eligibility determinations and decisions.

The Rule has been published in the Federal Register and is scheduled to become effective March 17, 2024. A recent Executive Order, however, may delay or impact whether the Rule is implemented and, if it is implemented, the timing of when the Rule becomes effective.

The United States Supreme Court’s pending decision in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd., et al. (“Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd.”) in which the high court was asked to determine the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) independent funding structure, continues to impact pending civil investigative demands brought by the CFPB.

On March 29, 2024, in Consumer Financial Protection Bureau v. Financial Asset Management, Inc., the United ...

On October 3, 2023, the United States Supreme Court heard oral argument in Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd., et al. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, et al., in which the Court was asked to determine the constitutionality of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (“CFPB”) independent funding structure.

In Community Financial Services Association of America Ltd., et al. v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, et al., the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held in a unanimous decision that the CFPB’s “unique” funding ...

After receiving a litigation hold notice many months ago (which we covered here), you’ve finally stopped panicking about your employer’s lawsuit. That is until you’re told that you’ve been designated as a “corporate representative” to testify at a deposition on behalf of your employer. Your dread sinks in yet again. What does this mean? What do you need to do? Here are the basics on corporate designee depositions, and some simple tips on how to handle a corporate representative deposition designation, including recent guidance from the Eleventh Circuit Court of ...

On July 7, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) issued an advisory opinion entitled ‘“Fair Credit Reporting: Permissible Purposes for Furnishing, Using, and Obtaining Consumer Reports.”[1] The advisory opinion clarifies that “permissible purposes” under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (the “FCRA”) are “consumer specific” and highlights that a person who uses or obtains a “consumer report” is “strictly prohibit[ed]” from doing so without a permissible purpose under the FCRA. In the midst of ongoing Congressional efforts to pass a comprehensive federal data privacy law, the CFPB’s advisory opinion is a reminder of the existing rules that protect consumer privacy.