A class-action complaint has been filed against Midland Credit Management, Inc., alleging the company violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by including the words “Time Sensitive Documents” on the envelope of a collection letter.
A copy of the complaint in the case of Gabriel v. Midland Credit Management can be accessed by clicking here.
The plaintiff defaulted on a credit card debt which was purchased by the defendant. The defendant sent a collection letter to the plaintiff. On the outside of the letter, the words “Time Sensitive Documents” were placed in the center of the envelope.
The plaintiff filed suit, alleging the inclusion of “Time Sensitive Documents” violates Section 1692f(8) of the FDCPA, which prohibits “using any language or symbol, other than the debt collector’s address, on any envelope when communicating with a consumer by use of the mails or by telegram, except that a debt collector may use his business name if such name does not indicate that he is in the debt collection business.”
Including the phrase on the envelope caused the plaintiff to immediately open it “to examine the letter contained inside of it reportedly was time sensitive.” The complaint includes no mention of what offer(s), if any, were included in the letter itself.
The complaint accuses the defendant of using the phrase to induce the least sophisticated consumers to open the envelopes, read the letter, and then call the defendant in regards to the unpaid debt.
The complaint also alleges that the defendant consumers are more likely to open envelopes that include that phrase on it and that the defendant collects more money from consumers when it uses that phrase on its letters.
The plaintiff is seeking to include in the class, “all persons with mailing addresses within this District who were mailed a form collection letter where the letters identified a debt related to a Synchrony Bank account and the collection letters were mailed inside of envelopes containing the words ‘Time Sensitive Documents.'”
