Zanah Qasem v. Account Services Collections, Inc.

• Court: District Court of Appeal of Florida
• Decided: June 19, 2024
• Docket: 2023-0111
• Status: Published

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed June 19, 2024. Not final until disposition of timely filed motion for rehearing.

________________

No. 3D23-0111 Lower Tribunal No. 21-25014 CC ________________

Zanah Qasem, Appellant,

vs.

Account Services Collections, Inc., Appellee.

An Appeal from the County Court for Miami-Dade County, Natalie Moore, Judge.

Twig, Trade, & Tribunal, PLLC, and Morgan Weinstein (Fort Lauderdale), for appellant.

Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, and James H. Wyman, for appellee.

Before LINDSEY, GORDO and BOKOR, JJ.

PER CURIAM. Affirmed. See Cornette v. I.C. Sys., Inc., 280 F. Supp. 3d 1362, 1369–

70 (S.D. Fla. 2017) (“Nowhere in the FDCPA does the statute specifically

require a debt collector to validate a debt prior to seeking collection of such

debt. In fact, § 1692g(a)(3) specifically allows a debt collector to assume a

debt to be valid if not disputed by the consumer within thirty days of receiving

such notice. A reading of the FDCPA that requires pre-collection

investigation would therefore render § 1692g(a)(3) superfluous, especially

as applied to the first communication between a debt collector and

consumer.”); see also Stanley v. Kan. Couns. of Kan. City, 639 F. App’x 589,

591 (11th Cir. 2016) (“Other than Stanley's own conclusory and self-serving

allegations that she did not owe the amount that Kansas Counselors was

attempting to collect, there is no evidence that Kansas Counselors used any

false, deceptive, or misleading representation about the amount of the debt,

threatened to take illegal action, or attempted to collect any amount that was

not authorized.”).