The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act limits what debt collectors may make visible on envelopes sent to collect debts. In this case, a debt collector sent a envelope, and visible through the window of the envelope was an account number — apparently an internal account number generated by the debt collector. The debtor sued, asserting that this visible account number violated the FDCPA. The district court held that the account number met a benign language exception; today, CA3 reversed, holding that, if such an exception exists, this account number would not meet it because “it is a piece of information capable of identifying Douglass as a debtor” and “Disclosed to the public, it could be used to expose her financial predicament.” I’m not persuaded. I get lots of mail with account numbers that don’t involve debt collection. I don’t see — and the opinion never says — how an internal account number could “expose” the recipient “as a debtor.”

The case is Douglass v. Convergent Outsourcing. Opinion by Scirica, joined by Fisher and Mariani MDPA by designation. Arguing counsel were Cary Flitter for the debtor and Richard Perr for the debt collector.