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Home | Newsroom | Financial Security | Column: A new California law is kicking in that will help keep debt collectors at bay

Column: A new California law is kicking in that will help keep debt collectors at bay

“When SB 616 was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom last October, the Western Center on Law & Poverty estimated the average Californian owed $15,100 in non-mortgage debt, including medical, student, auto and credit card obligations.

That amount is now almost certainly higher, said Jessica Bartholow, policy advocate for the Los Angeles-based nonprofit organization, which played an instrumental role in passage of the new law.

“It’s not hard to imagine that a lot of Californians are loading up their credit cards right now, just trying to get by,” she told me. “Once debt gets to a collector, they’ll go after it any way they can.”

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