The State of North Carolina has finally resolved their action against Legal Helpers Debt Resolution. It marks a depressing end to an attorney loophole case that in the day was the business model of the attorney debt settlement company. It is interesting that when LHDR was fresh out of the box, people were aggressively defending their business plan and attorney ... Read More »

The Federal Trade Commission is getting ready to announce an increase in fees for companies performing telemarketing under the Telemarketing Sales Rules The cost to access the Do-Not-Call Registry to screen telephone numbers is going to increase to $60 per area code. The maximum fee that can be charged is increasing to $16,228. Read More »

This past weekend I held a meeting titled the “Rally in Raleigh” where a number of debt relief companies, and some guest regulators got together to talk openly and honestly about the current state of the debt relief industry. We wound up focusing more on debt settlement since it is a subset of the debt relief industry that is going ... Read More »

I’m just now getting an opportunity to sit down with the entire 229 page FTC document and go through it. Overall the FTC appears to have placed little to no weight or credence on the testimony or supplied facts of the debt settlements trade associations of The Association of Settlement Companies (TASC) and the United States Organization of Bankruptcy Alternatives ... Read More »

In an ongoing effort to better protect financially distressed consumers, the Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment on proposed rules to combat deceptive and abusive telemarketing of debt relief services – services that purportedly can reduce consumers’ credit card and other unsecured debt. In the Noticed of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) announced today, the Commission proposes amendments to the Telemarketing ... Read More »