Summary:

In a published decision that will reverberate through both the consumer bankruptcy and mortgage servicing worlds, the Fourth Circuit in affirmed summary judgment for mortgage servicers, holding that accurate, properly disclaimed, and timely mortgage communications sent during a Chapter 13 case are not “debt collection” under the FDCPA—and therefore do not violate the automatic stay.

The Facts (and the Fight)

Ruben Palazzo, a Chapter 13 debtor, received the familiar trio of communications from his mortgage servicer:

Summary:

In Warren v. Cielo Ventures, the North Carolina Supreme Court delivers a sharply divided opinion on whether a contractual one-year limitation period can override the four-year statute of limitations for claims under the Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act (UDTPA).

The majority (Justice Berger) answers that question with a firm yes.

Summary:

The Court of Appeals largely affirmed a substantial judgment against a storage operator that:

• Took and held a debtor’s property for over three years

• Moved it multiple times

• Refused return unless the owner signed a liability release

Result:

• Conversion, trespass to chattels, and UDTPA → affirmed

Summary:

What Judge Edwards has done in the DBMP decision—and what In re Wolbert foreshadowed years earlier—is to remind us that attorney-client privilege in bankruptcy is not a static shield. It is a conditional protection, one that can erode—sometimes quickly—once the debtor crosses the line from considering bankruptcy to committing to it.

And that line matters.

Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=6378922