Mass. AG's New Regs Puts Tighter Squeeze On Anyone Engaging In Dubious Practices When Collecting Debts From Consumers Residing In Bay State

Lexology reports:

• On March 2, 2012, the Massachusetts Attorney General published onerous new consumer debt collection practice regulations, deeming their violation to be an unfair trade practice.
  
  
• These regulations, which became effective upon publication, purport to govern every business and person nationwide who engages in collecting a consumer debt (defined as any debt resulting from a purchase, lease or loan of goods, services or real or personal property or for a loan of money obtained for personal, family or household purposes, whether or not reduced to a judgment) from a person located within Massachusetts.
  
  
• A copy of the regulations is available here. They are extraordinary in that, among other things, they impose validation and verification requirements on creditors collecting their own debts, rather than just on third party debt collectors or purchasers of defaulted debt as under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

For more, see Massachusetts first state to require creditors to validate consumer debt (requires subscription; if no subscription, TRY HERE).

Thanks to Deontos for the heads-up on the story.