Delaware House Bill 230 (Prior Session Legislation)

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Spectrum: Strong Partisan Bill (Democrat 13-1)
Status: Introduced on January 23 2014 - 25% progression, died in committee
Action: 2014-01-23 - Introduced and Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee in House
Pending: House Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee
Text: Latest bill text (Draft #1) [HTML]

This bill adopts the Model Family Financial Protection Act. In doing so this bill: 1.) protects consumers of our state by requiring that consumer form contracts involving financial services be signed in writing by the consumer. More importantly, any changes to a consumer form contract involving financial services must be agreed to by the consumer in writing. 2.) protects consumers by preventing financial services businesses from changing a contract without the consumer’s knowing and affirmative agreement. 3.) prohibits “forum selection” provisions which require that all lawsuits related to a contract be brought in a certain state, which makes it impossible for a consumer to bring a claim at all given the expensive of filing an action in a distant jurisdiction. 4.) attempts to reform the practice of debt buying by requiring adequate documentation of the history of a consumer debt. It protects consumers by requiring both debt buyers and other debt collectors to possess certain basic information about the debt before initiating collection efforts, including proof of indebtedness by a consumer, date of the debt, identity of the original creditor, and itemization of all fees, charges and payments. 5.) prohibits the collection of consumer debt by any party not in possession of at least a copy of the original contract, or other documentation evidencing the consumer’s liability. 6.) provides a single uniform, reasonable statute of limitations for consumer debts. 7.) gives consumers an opportunity to settle debts, resolve disputes, or raise any errors by providing them with a notice 30 days before being faced with a legal action or arbitration proceeding. 8.) provides that if a debt is no longer owned by the original creditor, it requires the debt buyer to give the consumer adequate information about the debt so that the consumer can understand which debt he or she is being sued over. 9.) provides additional notice to ensure that a consumer-defendant has proper notification of a lawsuit and is afforded the opportunity to defend him or herself in court. 10.) limits the amount of interest that can be assessed to a consumer debtor when a debt collector prevails in a collection lawsuit against the consumer debtor. 11.) provides for the protection of debtors’ and their families’ income and assets at a level permitting them to provide for their necessary expenses and needs and to maintain employment while recognizing the rights of creditors to be paid for debts lawfully owed to them from discretionary income and undedicated assets; 12.) updates the laws of this state relating to debtors’ exemptions and make those protections self-enforcing to the maximum feasible extent.

An Act To Amend Title 6 Of The Delaware Code Relating To Consumer Protection.

Rep. Helene Keeley [D]	Sen. Karen Peterson [D]	Sen. David McBride [D]	Sen. Bryan Townsend [D]
Rep. Michael Barbieri [D]	Rep. Earl Jaques [D]	Rep. John Kowalko [D]	Rep. Joseph Miro [R]
Rep. John Mitchell [D]	Rep. Michael Mulrooney [D]	Rep. Edward Osienski [D]	Sen. Bruce Ennis [D]
Sen. Bethany Hall-Long [D]	Sen. David Sokola [D]

Date	Chamber	Action
2014-01-23	House	Introduced and Assigned to Economic Development/Banking/Insurance/Commerce Committee in House

Type	Source
Summary	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis147.nsf/2bede841c6272c888025698400433a04/6e73032c903cdfd685257c62005161a7?OpenDocument
Text	http://legis.delaware.gov/LIS/lis147.nsf/vwLegislation/HB+230/$file/legis.html?open