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How Debt Collectors Are Transforming The Business Of State Courts

On this edition of In Black America, producer/host John L. Hanson Jr. speaks with Erika Rickard, director of civil legal modernization at the PEW Charitable Trusts. From 1993 to 2013, the number of debt claims filed in civil courts across this country increased to the point where it became the single largest share of civil court business over that period, particularly as people used civil courts less for other issues. 

Rickard talks about the PEW report, how consumers can protect themselves, how the court system has become a debt collection tool for businesses suing consumers and how the COVID-19 pandemic presents a critical opportunity for courts to address the challenges of debt claims cases ahead of a likely surge in filings. 

John L. Hanson is the producer and host of the nationally syndicated radio series In Black America. It’s heard on home station KUT at 10 p.m. Tuesdays and 6:30 a.m. Sundays — and weekly on close to 20 stations across the country. The weekly podcast of IBA, the only nationally broadcast Black-oriented public affairs radio program, is one of KUT’s most popular podcasts.
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