Recently, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals held that
consumers can dispute the validity of a debt orally because the
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act does not impose a writing
requirement.
In the case of
Clark v. Absolute Collection Service, Inc., the Court held that a third party debt collector’s
notice related to an attempt to collect a debt did not properly
state the law because it attempted to impose a requirement on
the Clark’s to dispute the debt in writing. Consumers have
various rights to be free from unfair or improper methods of
debt collection and this decision affirms those rights.