Texas A&M University School of Law Professor Neil Sobol testified in support of Texas House Bill 996 before the Texas House Committee on Pensions, Investments and Financial Services on March 26, 2019, in Austin.
According to Sobol, the bill is aimed at reducing the abuses associated with the collection of time-barred debts by debt buyers. Under current law, a payment or acknowledgement of a time-barred debt can re-start the limitations clock creating an enforceable “zombie debt.” House Bill 996 would prevent the creation of zombie debts and would require debt buyers to provide notice when collecting on time-barred debts.
One of the bill’s sponsors is state Representative Nicole Collier, House District 95, from Fort Worth. She is a graduate of Texas Wesleyan University School of Law, now known as Texas A&M University School of Law. Professor Sobol spent several hours with Rep. Collier and her staff responding to objections, drafting language for a substitute bill and working on her presentation of the bill.
See Professor Sobol's testimony at 1:42:50 in the Committee broadcast.
Professor Sobol's current research focuses on issues involving abuses by debt collectors in both the civil and criminal justice arenas, building upon his practice experience in consumer-protection issues. He has also testified about debt collection abuses before the United States Commission on Civil Rights in March 2017. At the briefing on “Targeted Fines and Fees against Low-Income Minorities: Civil Rights and Constitutional Implications,” his testimony focused on issues discussed in his article “Fighting Fines & Fees: Borrowing from Consumer Law to Combat Criminal Justice Debt Abuses” published in the Colorado Law Review.
Professor Sobol is the Director of the Legal Analysis, Research & Writing Program at Texas A&M School of Law.