Debtor’s Rights in the Age of the iPhone

By Vincent LoBue Esq., Yessner and Boss

On the Shoulders of a Giant

Just this month the world lost a titan of industry with the sad passing of Apple’s CEO, Steve Jobs. In him we lost a modern day Leonardo da Vinci, an inventor and innovator, whose imagination shaped our collective reality forever. I am a recent owner of my first smart phone and Apple product, an iPhone. I was thrilled at how quickly and seamlessly this device allowed me to combine almost every facet of my personal and professional life, my movies, my music, my pictures, my sports, my calendar, my email, my friends, my family, into one central location – my access to me.

What I find unique about the machine born of Jobs’ genius is frankly the personal connection that I feel for my iPhone. No other machine elicits the same reaction from the user, with the closest exception being some people’s affinity for their car. And the same observation can be made of other smart phones, too. Just ask any habitual Blackberry user.

So why such an intimate connection to an inanimate telephone? Simply, it is more than a phone. The smart phone is a gateway into every aspect of an individual’s private and professional life. As Steve Jobs was able to imagine, smart phones give us access to our entire lives including family, friends, our jobs, personal finances, social networks, hobbies and entertainment. This is the new smart phone reality and in tribute to Steve Jobs, the giant on whose shoulders we now stand, I will refer to this new paradigm as the iPhone age.

Debt Collection Practices in the iPhone Age

As our economy continues to face the long-term impacts of the economic crisis triggered during the summer of 2008, nearly every individual from consumers to the small business owners are faced with making difficult financial decisions. In Florida we continue to face unemployment and foreclosure rates that rival the highest in the nation. Many consumers and small business owners who have never faced these new financial difficulties find themselves in unfamiliar waters, where it is easy to lose sight of the free market realities.

The debtor-creditor relationship is like any other free market transaction – it assumes that the participants are acting rationally of their own free will. In practice the debtor-creditor relationship is usually composed of a person or small business owner as the debtor and a large corporation as the creditor. Most creditors utilize automated dialing equipment and computer aided calling systems to collect on past due debt. The autonomous assault by the creditor’s computer on a smart phone increases the chance that the debtor will act irrationally and make a poor decision favoring the creditor.

A Federal Shield

At the time many of the statutes designed to protect debtors were enacted, the idea of an iPhone was locked up twenty years away in the imaginative genius of Steve Jobs. These laws simply do not account for the new realities of the iPhone age. Fortunately, federal statute regulates the placement of cell phone calls and makes it illegal to place a cell phone call using automated dialing equipment unless the caller has permission or it is an emergency. Violators are subject to statutory damages in the amount of $500.00 per phone call and up to $1,500.00 per phone call for knowing and intentional violations.

When faced with the prospect of having to make a difficult economic decision, owners of smart phones should not fear a collection attack on that device. By utilizing federal law a creditor’s cell phone collection calls can be stopped or if non-compliance continues it can potentially lead to large statutory awards. It is critical to properly invoke these federal protections when dealing with any difficult debt issues in the iPhone age.

About the Author
Vincent C. LoBue is an associate attorney with the firm practicing in consumer protection litigation, foreclosures, bankruptcy, debt management, and general litigation. Vince is a member of the Florida and New Jersey bar associations, and is admitted to practice before the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida. Vince received his law degree from Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport, Florida. Prior to entering law school Vince received a Bachelor of Science in Physics from Rowan University in Glassboro, New Jersey. Vince was born and raised in Long Valley, New Jersey and currently resides in St. Petersburg, Florida. vince@yesnerboss.com.