Mertes v. Devitt’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 4 district · 2 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The principal purpose of defendant’s business is not debt collection. Accordingly, the FDCPA is applicable to [defendant] only if his collection activities are sufficient to bring him within the definition as a person “who regularly collects or attempts to collect” debts of another.... [Here] [s]uch a limited involvement in collection matters does not satisfy the commonly understood meaning of the term regular. An interpretation which would include defendant’s actions as “regular” debt collection would completely erase the limitation Congress included in the law and would be inconsistent with a common sense reading of the statute.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. White v. Simonson & Cohen P.C.

2. “any attorney who is in the business of collecting debts will be regarded by the Act as a debt collector.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Michael G. Schroyer

3. “that attorneys were only incidentally involved in debt collection activities,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Michael G. Schroyer