Gov. Evers recently issued emergency guidelines to prohibit certain debt collection practices during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The state Department of Financial Institutions administers the Wisconsin Consumer Act which governs consumer credit transactions.
Matt Lynch is Chief Legal Counsel with the agency. He says they're looking at the coming storm caused by people losing thir jobs because of the COVID-19 emergency. He says they learned some things after the 2008 recession. He says they're working pro-actively to get the word out to debt collectors that this is a different time...
"This is a different time, a different scale that we are dealing with jobless claims in numbers we've never seen before in such a short period of time in this country. They're going to have to adjust their practices accordingly and not think this is business as usual..."
Lynch says the law allows them to make a 'reasonable' effort to collect the debt, but too many calls might get their attention, especially after a consumer has told them that they lost their job. He says they've put out information to debt collectors to be careful, but each call has to be looked at in context. He says it's likely the economic crisis might outlast the public health emergency so the new rules likely will be something debt collectors will need to consider in the future.
There's a link to the emergency rules at the Department of Financial Institutions website.
