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Senate advances Debt Collection Fairness Act to protect consumers from garnishment and aggressive collection
Summary
The Senate advanced S.2551, the Debt Collection Fairness Act, after debate outlining four main consumer-protection provisions: higher garnishment exemptions, lower post-judgment interest rates, an end to civil arrest warrants for consumer debts, and a reduced statute of limitations.
The Massachusetts Senate advanced An Act Relative to Fairness in Debt Collection (S.2551) during the same session, adopting a Ways and Means substitute and ordering the bill to a third reading before passing it to be engrossed.
Senator James B. Eldridge, who presented the bill on the floor, described four principal reforms: raising protected amounts against wage garnishment, reducing the interest rate on consumer debt judgments, ending imprisonment through civil arrest warrants for failure to pay consumer debt, and shortening the statutory limit for collection suits from six years to five.
Eldridge said the bill "is not... walking away from the fact that consumers must pay their debt, but rather making sure that there are adequate…
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