A collection lawyer who was sued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for not complying with a Civil Investigative Demand letter has gone on the offensive, filing a lawsuit of her own against the regulator. The Law Offices of Crystal Moroney filed the lawsuit in federal court in New York on December 18, accusing the defendant of denying the plaintiff’s right to due process and causing the plaintiff irreparable harm, unlawfully abusing its investigative authority, and having an unconstitutional organizational structure.
A copy of the complaint in the case of the Law Offices of Crystal Moroney v. Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection can be accessed by clicking here. The plaintiff is being represented by New Civil Liberties Alliance, a non-profit civil rights group that defends constitutional freedoms, according to the organization’s website.
In July 2017, the CFPB issued a CID to the plaintiff, seeking information that might be relevant to its investigation into the law firm’s collection practices. The plaintiff, according to the CFPB, failed to fully comply with the CID, which led the agency to seek a federal judge to compel compliance.
In response to the suit, the law firm filed a motion to dismiss the case asserting several challenges to the CFPB’s action, including accusing the Bureau’s structure of being unconstitutional. The CFPB opted to abandon the case and avoid the legal fight over its constitutionality. But hours after it dropped the case, the CFPB filed a new CID with the plaintiff, which the plaintiff says is “nearly identical” to the original request.
In its suit, the plaintiff is also accusing the CFPB of filing CIDs with the law firm’s clients, seeking to elicit information about the plaintiff.
The CFPB was issued a summons electronically on December 20 and has not yet responded to the complaint. It declined the chance to comment, according to the plaintiff’s attorney
