Which place’s debt rules apply—and who can help?

S_NE PASS-08 — Nebraska collection-agency and debt-buyer licensing; original-creditor versus third-party coverage; state-specific collection conduct

Actual fresh research date: October 26, 2026, Pacific time / October 26, 2026 UTC Mode/model: Regular Chat; GPT-5.6 Sol Pro Review status: Same-project continuation, not independent review.

This pass is limited to Nebraska collection-agency licensing and classification, public entry/verification evidence, and substantive Nebraska collection-conduct rules. It does not accept or regenerate the prior debt-adjustment, fee, funds, security, agreement, or provider-remedies components. Detailed validation, documentation, credit reporting, debt-specific limitations or revival, collection litigation, service, default judgments, garnishment, secured-credit procedures, local or tribal rules, and full collection remedies remain separate required work.

Focused determination

Nebraska’s Collection Agency Act is not limited to consumer debt. Its licensing definition reaches persons soliciting claims “of any kind” from more than one creditor-client and asserting, enforcing, or prosecuting those claims. The agency-hosted rule confirms that licensed-agency records may involve a “consumer or business,” making commercial collection plainly relevant to the state license even though the federal FDCPA ordinarily applies only to personal, family, or household obligations. Nebraska Legislature+1

The principal state classifications are:

• A creditor collecting its own accounts in its true name is generally outside the Nebraska “collection agency” definition on the statute’s structure.
• A creditor using a fictitious or other name suggesting that a third person is collecting is expressly brought inside the definition.
• A purchaser for value collecting purchased accounts in the purchaser’s own name is expressly excluded.
• A conventional agency soliciting collection claims from multiple creditor-clients is covered.
• Attorneys are excluded only while handling claims in their own names and not operating an agency under lay management.
• Nebraska has no general collection-agency exemption merely for an affiliate, nonprofit, remote company, debt-relief licensee, or federally regulated collector. Nebraska Legislature

The purchaser exclusion is sharply different from current federal law. Under Henson, ownership of purchased debt defeats only the FDCPA’s “regularly collects debts owed another” branch. Under the Eighth Circuit’s Reygadas decision, a debt buyer whose principal business purpose is collecting purchased consumer debts can still be a federal debt collector even when independent agencies or lawyers perform the direct collection. Supreme Court+1

Nebraska’s Collection Agency Act and Chapter 2 licensing rules do not contain a general communications code equivalent to FDCPA/Regulation F. The reviewed state collection-agency authorities do not set general 8 a.m.–9 p.m. hours, third-party-contact rules, attorney-representation rules, numeric call-frequency limits, cease-contact rules, electronic opt-outs, validation procedures, or broad fee restrictions for every Nebraska-licensed collection agency. Chapter 2 merely requires the Board to inform applicants that the federal FDCPA exists. More detailed Nebraska conduct restrictions exist in particular sectors—notably the Nebraska Installment Loan and Sales Act, workers’ compensation medical debt, specified assault/abuse medical bills, and public debts. Nebraska Secretary of State+3

A. Nebraska licensing and classification

A1. Core state definition

Neb. Rev. Stat. §45-602 defines a collection agency through three principal branches:

1. Persons or entities directly or indirectly soliciting, from more than one person or entity, claims “of any kind” owed or asserted to be owed to those solicited clients, plus persons asserting, enforcing, or prosecuting those claims;
2. A person collecting its own account under a fictitious or other name indicating that a third person is collecting; and
3. A person selling or giving an unlicensed creditor a letter or form system that represents that a third party is collecting the creditor’s claim. Nebraska Legislature

No person may conduct a covered collection-agency business without the Nebraska license. Unlicensed operation is a Class III misdemeanor for each day of unlawful business, and an officer or agent who personally participates is separately reached. A regular employee of a licensed agency need not hold the agency license, but employees who solicit or collect referred accounts fall within the solicitor-certificate architecture. Nebraska Legislature+2

Commercial versus consumer claims

The state definition says “claims of any kind” and does not impose a personal, family, or household purpose restriction. Chapter 2 requires payment records to identify the “consumer’s or business’s” name. Accordingly, a third-party commercial collection agency can require the Nebraska license even though the federal FDCPA does not regulate collection of a business-purpose debt. Nebraska Legislature+1

One-client edge

The clearest §45-602(2)(a) case involves claims solicited from more than one creditor-client. The statute does not squarely resolve a dedicated servicer collecting only for one unaffiliated creditor, one affiliate, or one debt purchaser. Chapter 2’s definition of “soliciting” does not eliminate the statute’s “more than one” text. A one-client servicer may be covered through another branch or facts showing more than one actual client, but that classification remains held rather than assumed.

A2. Model-by-license and exemption matrix

The principal state classifications come directly from §§45-601 and 45-602. The debt-purchaser exclusion was also the subject of Nebraska Attorney General Opinion 96085, which concluded that a company purchasing returned checks and collecting them in its own name fell outside the Act and Board jurisdiction. The opinion is historical advisory authority, not a court judgment, but the current purchaser-exclusion wording remains materially similar. Nebraska Legislature+3

A3. Out-of-state and remote nexus

Nebraska creates two rules that must not be collapsed:

• Section 45-601 protects a regulated out-of-state collection agency residing elsewhere from having its communication with a Nebraska debtor prohibited by the Act.
• A Nebraska licensee ordinarily must maintain a regular physical office in Nebraska with records or electronic access to records involving Nebraska clients or debtors. Foreign corporations and LLCs may qualify if authorized to do business in Nebraska and otherwise compliant. Nebraska Legislature+2

The communication sentence is narrower than a blanket remote-provider exemption. It does not expressly authorize an out-of-state entity to:

• solicit collection accounts from Nebraska businesses;
• advertise or hold itself out as a Nebraska collection agency;
• operate a Nebraska branch;
• employ uncertified collectors for Nebraska accounts; or
• disregard other Nebraska or federal conduct law.

The precise line between protected debtor communication and conducting Nebraska collection-agency business remains unresolved by a located controlling opinion.

B. Licensing entry, continuity, and public verification

B1. Regulator and current filing route

The regulator is the Nebraska Collection Agency Licensing Board, chaired by the Secretary of State. The current public agency page says new applicants must file through NMLS and that paper applications are no longer accepted. Branches are also handled through NMLS. Solicitors are submitted through an alphabetical list including names, aliases, and hire dates, with a $1 fee per solicitor. Nebraska Secretary of State

The linked NMLS Nebraska resource page returned no substantive checklist text through the public browsing route. The SOS page remains affirmative evidence of the current filing channel, but a complete current NMLS state checklist was not authenticated in this pass. Nationwide Licensing System

B2. Applicant qualifications

A license applicant must be trustworthy, reputable for honesty and fair dealing, financially responsible, and competent. A manager or executive officer ordinarily needs two years’ collection-business experience, although the Board may accept sufficient other business experience. A licensee ordinarily must maintain a Nebraska office; a foreign corporation or LLC must also be authorized to do business in Nebraska. Specified recent fraud or failure-to-account convictions or judgments are disqualifying. Nebraska Legislature

The sworn statutory application includes an investigation fee of up to $250 plus any allowed processing fee and a verified financial statement. The agency-hosted Chapter 2 rule currently displays a $200 license fee and $200 investigation fee. The full current rule-adoption history was not authenticated, so the statutory ceilings and displayed rule amounts should be kept distinct. Nebraska Secretary of State+1

B3. Office, branch, and solicitor requirements

A “regular office” under Chapter 2 is a physical Nebraska location where a manager, officer, employee, or agent maintains regular or publicly posted hours and where the agency keeps, or can electronically access, collection records involving Nebraska clients or debtors. Failure to maintain it is a revocation ground. Nebraska Secretary of State

A branch certificate is required before business is conducted at a branch. The principal license and branch certificate must be conspicuously displayed at the relevant office. A solicitor certificate is tied to the employing licensee and becomes void when the license lapses or employment terminates. Nebraska Legislature+1

Guidance Document 20-01 permits certified solicitors to work remotely, including from home, provided the licensed employer continues to satisfy the Nebraska-office, records, display, and certification requirements. The document’s data-security recommendations are advisory best practices, not newly enacted rules or penalties. Nebraska Secretary of State+1

B4. Entry amounts and collector-specific security

The following are collector-license requirements, not DMP or CSO amounts:

The bond secures collection-agency obligations and must not be confused with the separate DMP or CSO security structures. Bond form, claims, cancellation, replenishment, and insolvency treatment remain for a collector-security pass. Nebraska Legislature+1

B5. Renewal-date conflict

The statute says:

• every license and certificate expires December 31; and
• renewal application may be made on or before December 31.

The agency-hosted Chapter 2 rule says:

• the Board sends renewal forms on or about November 1;
• complete renewal material must be submitted on or before December 1; and
• an application received after December 1 is treated as an initial application. Nebraska Legislature+1

This is a genuine statutory-versus-rule-text tension. This pass does not declare either text void, amend the statute to December 1, or represent that December 31 is operationally safe. The full rulemaking history, any reconciliation, and the current NMLS renewal checklist remain unverified.

B6. License changes and termination

Chapter 2 requires specified changes—name, address, managers or officers, and certain ownership changes—to be reported within 30 days. Licenses are nontransferable, and major ownership or structural changes require a new license application. Nebraska Secretary of State

When a license ends through revocation, expiration, denial, or surrender, the displayed rule requires the agency to:

• stop collection activity immediately;
• return client accounts within 45 days, unless the client gives written authority to transfer them to another agency;
• file a notarized compliance affidavit by the end of the 45-day period; and
• forward post-termination consumer payments immediately and in full to the applicable client without retaining a fee or commission. Nebraska Secretary of State+1

These are continuity requirements, not authority for a consumer refund, debt cancellation, or automatic private remedy.

B7. Recordkeeping

Chapter 2 requires a licensee to retain collection-payment records for two years after receipt. Required fields include:

• consumer or business name;
• client name;
• amounts and receipt dates;
• allocation to principal, interest, court costs, attorney fees, and other costs;
• applicable interest rate;
• current balance; and
• deposit date. Nebraska Secretary of State

This recordkeeping rule is not a consumer-facing validation or documentation right. It does not establish that every recorded fee or interest charge is legally authorized.

B8. Public verification and complaints

The current public routes are:

• SOS “Licensed Collection Agencies” roster;
• NMLS Consumer Access;
• the SOS licensing page and NMLS application route; and
• the Board’s sworn-complaint and own-motion discipline process. Nebraska Secretary of State+1

The opened roster is dated July 9, 2026, spans 18 pages, and states that the listed licenses expire December 31, 2026. It includes Nebraska, out-of-state, and international entities. It is a dated snapshot, not real-time proof of a named entity’s status or permission for every service. No named-provider lookup was performed. Nebraska Secretary of State+1

NMLS Consumer Access did not return usable license data through the public browsing route during this check. That failure does not establish that a license is absent. NMLS Consumer Access+1

Section 45-613 requires the Board to proceed on a sworn complaint from a customer or client and permits own-motion proceedings. Chapter 2 says “any person or client.” Historical Attorney General Opinion 96075 read the statute’s mandatory-hearing duty as limited to the named statutory complainants while recognizing the Board’s ability to proceed on its own motion. The discrepancy between current rule wording and statute was not resolved here. Nebraska Legislature+1

Nebraska’s general Attorney General complaint route is separate. The public form says the Attorney General enforces unfair/deceptive-practice laws, does not represent individual consumers, and uses a voluntary dispute-resolution process requiring business cooperation. It is not a Collection Agency Board sworn complaint, license adjudication, or proven tolling event. Nebraska.gov

B9. Consumer-facing license information

The Collection Agency Act requires conspicuous display of the agency license and branch certificate at the office. No reviewed state Collection Agency Act clause or Chapter 2 rule requires:

• the Nebraska license number in every letter, email, text, or call;
• a consumer-facing statement that the collector is Nebraska licensed;
• identification of the current creditor in every communication; or
• an FDCPA-style first-communication disclosure.

Those subjects may be governed by federal law, sector statutes, contracts, or later validation/reporting work.

C. Nebraska substantive collection conduct

C1. General Collection Agency Act conduct layer

The Collection Agency Act is principally a licensing, office, financial-responsibility, account-remittance, recordkeeping, and discipline regime. It authorizes discipline for failure to comply with the Act’s intent and purposes, failure to account, or financial irresponsibility. It does not itself enumerate a comprehensive consumer communications code. Nebraska Legislature

Chapter 2’s FDCPA section only requires the Board to tell applicants that the federal law exists and how to obtain it. The rule does not incorporate every federal requirement as independently enacted Nebraska law and does not expand federal coverage to commercial debt or actors excluded from the FDCPA. Nebraska Secretary of State

C2. State-conduct matrix

C3. Installment-loan collection restrictions

The Nebraska Installment Loan and Sales Act defines a “licensee” as a person holding that Act’s license and defines the relevant consumer and loan terms. Its conduct rules therefore cannot be applied automatically to every hospital, utility, commercial creditor, debt buyer, or collection agency. Nebraska Legislature

Third-party contacts

An installment-loan licensee generally may not contact a person outside the borrower’s household about the borrower’s payment obligation, other than:

• the borrower’s spouse;
• the borrower’s attorney;
• another creditor; or
• a credit reporting agency.

A borrower may waive that protection only through consent given after the debt arises. Separate exceptions permit specified judgment-property inquiries, amicable demand or suit, post-debt written permission to contact relatives, credit inquiries not designed to collect a delinquent debt, and attempts to locate a borrower believed to have changed address or employment. Nebraska Legislature+1

Written cease-contact instruction

After default, a borrower may send a specific written instruction by registered or certified mail directing the installment-loan licensee to cease further contacts. The licensee must then generally limit contact to one notice per month by mail, subject to §45-352’s exceptions. That notice may not threaten an action not otherwise legally permitted. This is not a general Nebraska cease-contact rule for every collector. Nebraska Legislature+1

Prohibited methods

In collecting a loan, an installment-loan licensee may not use violence or profanity; call at known-inconvenient times; misrepresent the debt, attorney status, arrest, crime, or legal action; communicate known-false credit information; use fake legal documents; charge unauthorized collection amounts; misuse postdated instruments; conceal communication charges; use a postcard; or contact the workplace after actual notice of an employer prohibition. Nebraska Legislature

These rules do not establish a universal Nebraska 8 a.m.–9 p.m. period, numeric call cap, electronic opt-out, or validation procedure.

C4. Workers’ compensation medical debt

After receipt of the required notices, a provider, supplier, collection agency, collector, or creditor may not collect a treatment debt arising from a work-related injury while the compensation matter is pending, until final adjudication. Notice is not imputed from one collector to another. Nebraska Legislature

The initial notice must identify the provider, employee, injury, filing date, and case number. A debt-specific notice must follow within 30 days unless the initial notice already identified the debt. Notice may be personally delivered, sent first class, or transmitted by another agreed method, but receipt must be demonstrable. Defective or late notice is ineffective until corrected. Nebraska Legislature

If collection continues after both notices:

• the notices may be sent to the Attorney General;
• the collector must receive a reasonable opportunity to cure;
• the Attorney General may take reasonable compliance steps;
• no private action exists under that section;
• the violation is not, by that provision alone, another state or federal violation; and
• the debt-collection limitations period is tolled during the compensation case from its filing date. Nebraska Legislature

C5. Assault- and abuse-related medical bills

A covered health provider, EMS provider, laboratory, or pharmacy may not refer a qualifying sexual-assault, domestic-assault, or child-abuse treatment bill to a collection agency or attorney, adversely report it, or take another adverse action against the victim or family. If a collector or attorney receives the debt, it must return the debt to the referring provider upon notice. The section expressly creates no private cause against the collector. Nebraska Legislature

C6. Public debts

Before a Nebraska state or local governmental body assigns a public debt to a licensed collection agency, it generally must attempt first-class-mail notice of the debt and possible assignment and wait at least 30 days. Child-support enforcement is separately treated. The agency receives only the remedies available as an assignee of a private creditor. Nebraska Legislature

For a court debt arising from a criminal or traffic matter, the statute permits a collection fee equal to the greater of:

Plain text

$25
or
4.5% × the debt

The debtor pays that fee directly to the collector. That narrow fee authority cannot be generalized to medical, utility, consumer-credit, or commercial debts. Nebraska Legislature

C7. NCPA boundary

Nebraska’s Consumer Protection Act independently prohibits unfair or deceptive acts in trade or commerce, but §59-1617 excludes actions or transactions otherwise permitted, prohibited, or regulated by specified or other statutory regulators. The exclusion must be analyzed against the particular conduct and regulator rather than treating a license as automatic immunity or automatic liability. Nebraska Legislature+1

In Hage v. General Service Bureau, a federal district court held that Collection Agency Board jurisdiction did not immunize collection conduct that had not been shown to be regulated by the Board. The case is persuasive federal district-court authority, not a Nebraska appellate holding. Its separate 2003 conclusion about then-current Nebraska attorney-fee and interest law predates later statutory changes and is not used here as current fee authority. Justia Law

A collection-license violation does not, without a separate remedial basis, establish automatic restitution, debt invalidity, contract voidness, or a private damages claim. Full remedy analysis remains outside this pass.

D. Federal FDCPA and Regulation F gateway

D1. State versus federal coverage

The operative federal definitions and exclusions are in 15 U.S.C. §1692a; preservation of state law appears in §1692n. U.S. Code+1

D2. Debt buyers

Henson

The U.S. Supreme Court held that an entity collecting debts it purchased and owns does not qualify under the FDCPA branch covering persons who regularly collect debts “owed another.” The Court expressly narrowed the issue and did not decide the separate principal-purpose branch. Supreme Court

Reygadas

The published Eighth Circuit decision governing federal cases in Nebraska held that the principal-purpose branch is distinct. A buyer whose most important business aim is obtaining payment on acquired debts can be a federal debt collector even if lawyers and collection agencies perform the direct collection. The court did not hold that every debt purchaser qualifies; a truly passive investor or diversified business may present a different principal-purpose question. Justia Law

Thus, these can both be true:

Plain text

Nebraska state license:
    purchaser collecting purchased claims in own name is excluded.

Federal FDCPA:
    the same buyer may be a principal-purpose debt collector.

D3. Attorneys

The Nebraska attorney exclusion and federal rule diverge. In Heintz v. Jenkins, the Supreme Court held that the FDCPA applies to attorneys who regularly engage in consumer-debt collection, including litigation. The Nebraska state exclusion still requires handling claims in the attorney’s own name and absence of lay management. Supreme Court+2

D4. Security-interest enforcement

In Obduskey v. McCarthy & Holthus LLP, the Supreme Court held that an entity engaged in no more than nonjudicial security-interest enforcement generally falls outside the FDCPA’s primary debt-collector definition, except for the limited §1692f(6) coverage. Conduct beyond pure enforcement can produce a different result. The decision does not resolve Nebraska collection-agency, private-detective, UCC, foreclosure, or repossession licensing. Supreme Court

D5. Material federal communications rules

When federal coverage is established:

• §1692c restricts inconvenient times and places, represented-consumer contacts, prohibited workplace contacts, third-party communications, and post-cease communications;
• §1692d prohibits harassment and abuse;
• §1692e prohibits false or misleading representations, including false legal and credit-reporting statements;
• §1692f prohibits unfair conduct and unauthorized incidental amounts;
• §1692h governs allocation among multiple debts; and
• §1692n preserves more protective state law. U.S. Code+5

Regulation F additionally provides:

• default convenient-call hours after 8 a.m. and before 9 p.m. at the consumer’s location;
• a clear, conspicuous, simple, and no-cost opt-out in covered electronic communications; and
• rebuttable call-frequency presumptions involving more than seven calls in seven consecutive days or calls within seven days after a telephone conversation about the debt, subject to the regulation’s exclusions and complete conditions. eCFR+3

These are federal standards. Chapter 2’s reference to the FDCPA does not transform them into Nebraska rules for commercial debts, original creditors, state-excluded purchasers, or other actors outside federal scope.

E. Decisions, opinions, and public enforcement evidence

The full Hage text was read from a published-opinion reproduction because no official court-hosted opinion was located. The official Eighth Circuit PDF for Reygadas returned an access failure, so its full published opinion was read through the public reproduction; its published status and precedential court remain clear.

F. Bounded hypothetical workflows

Example 1 — Original creditor versus false-name collection

Facts A

• Hospital owns a $900 patient account.
• Hospital billing department contacts the patient as “Orange County Hospital.”
• No separate entity or misleading collection name is used.

State classification: On these facts, the hospital is collecting its own debt in its own name and does not fall within the Nebraska false-name branch. Medical-sector restrictions and general deceptive-practice law may still apply.

Facts B

The hospital instead sends the same demand under “National Recovery Bureau,” a name that reasonably indicates a third party is collecting.

State classification: Section 45-602(2)(b) brings the creditor within the collection-agency definition unless another actual exemption applies. The result turns on the name’s representation, not merely internal ownership.

No conclusion is made about federal coverage, because the exact creditor/debt-collector and transaction facts would still be required.

Example 2 — Commercial accounts

Facts

• Agency solicits unpaid invoices from three Nebraska equipment wholesalers.
• Every invoice arose from business purchases.
• Agency collects for a percentage of recoveries.

Nebraska result

Plain text

Clients solicited                            3
Statutory threshold                         more than 1
Claim type                                  commercial
State “claims of any kind” condition        satisfied

The agency is within the core Nebraska licensing definition. The commercial nature of the invoices does not remove state licensing.

Federal result: The invoices are not personal, family, or household debts, so the FDCPA does not apply merely because the state license does.

Example 3 — Debt buyer and separate servicer

Facts

• Buyer purchases accounts for value.
• Buyer owns them and communicates in its own legal name.
• Buyer’s principal business is purchasing and recovering consumer debt.
• A separate agency collects for this buyer and twenty other clients.

Nebraska

• Buyer: purchaser exclusion is available on the stated own-name facts.
• Servicer: conventional multi-client collection agency; Nebraska license required.

Federal

• Buyer: Henson does not cover it under “owed another,” but Reygadas makes principal-purpose federal coverage a substantial possibility.
• Servicer: likely federal debt collector for qualifying consumer debts, subject to the complete definition and exclusions.

The state exclusion does not transfer to the servicer or decide federal status.

Example 4 — Passive buyer classification hold

Facts

• Entity purchases defaulted accounts.
• It never contacts debtors.
• All collection decisions, settlement authority, and litigation are handled by an independent firm.
• The buyer receives net proceeds.
• Its other business activities are unknown.

Nebraska result: Held. The purchaser exclusion and “in its own name” condition must be applied to the actual contracts, communications, and control rights.

Federal result: Held. Under Reygadas, outsourcing does not by itself defeat principal-purpose status, but a diversified or truly passive investor may differ.

Example 5 — Remote agency

Scenario A

• Iowa collection agency is regulated in Iowa.
• It resides in Iowa.
• It sends one communication to a Nebraska debtor concerning an Iowa client.

Section 45-601 says Nebraska’s Act shall not be construed to prohibit that communication. This does not decide all other Nebraska activity or federal compliance.

Scenario B

The same agency advertises to Nebraska businesses, acquires accounts from five Nebraska clients, and has no Nebraska office.

Chapter 2 defines the acquisition of accounts from Nebraska clients as soliciting, and §45-607 ordinarily requires a regular Nebraska office for a license. The remote-communication sentence does not establish an exemption for the broader business.

Example 6 — Attorney model

Facts A

• Nebraska attorney handles collection claims in the attorney’s own firm name.
• Lawyers manage the practice.
• No lay-managed agency operates behind the firm.

The state attorney exclusion is textually available.

Facts B

• A nonlawyer collection company owns the operating platform, directs staff, and markets a “law office” identity.
• Attorney involvement is nominal.

The state exclusion is not established because the statute requires absence of lay management. Federal status and unauthorized-practice consequences require actual facts.

Even in Facts A, Heintz means a lawyer regularly litigating consumer debts can be a federal debt collector.

Example 7 — Installment-loan workplace and cease instruction

Assumptions

• Collector is the actual Nebraska installment-loan licensee.
• Borrower is in default.
• Employer has given the licensee actual notice that workplace calls are prohibited.
• Borrower then sends the specific written cease instruction by certified mail.

State result

• Workplace contact is prohibited after actual employer notice.
• After the certified-mail instruction, contacts are generally limited to one mailed notice per month, subject to §45-352.
• No permitted notice may threaten action not otherwise legally available.

This does not establish the same rule for an unrelated medical collector or commercial collection agency.

Example 8 — False arrest threat and unauthorized fee

Assumptions

• Nebraska installment-loan licensee demands payment.
• Collector falsely says nonpayment will result in arrest.
• Collector adds a $75 “investigation fee.”
• Neither the loan agreement nor applicable law authorizes the $75.

State conduct

Plain text

False arrest representation                prohibited
Unauthorized incidental fee                prohibited
Demanded unauthorized fee                  $75
Automatically recoverable damages          not established in this pass

The $75 amount demonstrates the prohibited charge; it does not calculate restitution, statutory damages, or a private remedy.

If the actor were only a general collection agency and not an installment-loan licensee, this particular state section would not automatically apply. Federal and general deceptive-practice theories would need their own predicates.

Example 9 — Public criminal-court debt fee

Debt of $600

Plain text

4.5% × $600          = $27.00
Statutory floor      = $25.00
Greater amount       = $27.00

Conditional permitted collection fee: $27, only for the §45-623 criminal- or traffic-court debt branch.

Debt of $400

Plain text

4.5% × $400          = $18.00
Statutory floor      = $25.00
Greater amount       = $25.00

Conditional permitted collection fee: $25.

Neither example authorizes the same fee on a private medical, utility, card, rental, or commercial invoice.

Example 10 — Workers’ compensation medical debt

Define:

Plain text

N0 = date collector demonstrably receives complete initial notice
N1 = deadline 30 days after N0 for debt-specific notice,
     unless initial notice already identifies the debt

After both required notices are properly received, collection must pause while the compensation case remains pending. Notice to the provider is not imputed to the outside agency; each collector must receive its own compliant notice.

No exact calendar date is calculated because the relevant day-count, weekend, and holiday rules were not researched in this pass. Continued collection does not itself create a private claim under §48-148.02.

Example 11 — Electronic contact

Facts

• Agency sends a collection text to a Nebraska resident.
• Underlying debt is a personal credit-card obligation.
• Agency is a federal debt collector.
• Text has no simple no-cost opt-out.

Federal result: Regulation F’s electronic opt-out condition is implicated.

State result: No independent Nebraska Collection Agency Act text-message opt-out was verified. The federal violation does not become a Nebraska rule merely because Chapter 2 tells applicants that the FDCPA exists.

If the debt were a commercial invoice, federal FDCPA/Regulation F coverage would ordinarily be absent even though the agency might need a Nebraska license.

Example 12 — Eight calls in seven days

Facts

• Federal debt collector places eight calls concerning one consumer debt within seven consecutive days.
• No regulatory exclusion applies.
• No completed telephone conversation changes the analysis.

Federal result: Regulation F’s presumption-of-violation branch is implicated.

Nebraska result: This is not a verified Nebraska numerical call cap. State consequences would require a separately applicable statute or theory.

G. Source register

H. Claim register

I. Assigned coverage and remaining gaps

J. Researcher self-check

Freshly read in PASS-08

• The operative Nebraska Collection Agency Act provisions necessary for:licensing;definitions and exclusions;application and qualifications;bond threshold;branch and solicitor certificates;renewal;discipline and complaints;location changes;financial statements;fees;practice-of-law boundary; andpublic-debt collection.
• The agency-hosted Title 433, Chapter 2 PDF, including visual inspection of:definitions;application;solicitor certificates;ownership/change and termination rules;renewal;investigations and records;the FDCPA notice;regular-office requirement;discipline;fees and bond schedule.
• Guidance Document 20-01 in full, including both PDF pages.
• Current SOS collection-agency and licensing-forms pages.
• The July 9, 2026 active-license roster, including visual inspection of page 1 and parsed review of the 18-page list.
• Nebraska AG Opinions 96085 and 96075 in their relevant entirety.
• Current Nebraska Installment Loan and Sales Act definitions and conduct provisions:§§45-335;45-351;45-352;45-353; and45-372.
• Current workers’ compensation, assault/abuse medical-bill, public-debt, Consumer Protection Act, and private-detective boundary provisions.
• Current FDCPA scope, conduct, allocation, and state-law-preservation provisions.
• Current Regulation F communication, frequency, and unfair-conduct provisions necessary to the comparison.
• The relevant holdings of:Henson;Reygadas;Heintz;Obduskey; andHage.

Fresh access failures and limitations

• NMLS Consumer Access returned no usable license data.
• The linked NMLS Nebraska resource/checklist page returned no substantive text through this route.
• The official Eighth Circuit Reygadas PDF returned a 502; a full public published-opinion reproduction was read instead.
• The complete Hartman opinion was not obtained; only the official Legislature annotations were used.
• No complete current certified Title 433 version history or adoption record was authenticated.
• No indexed current Collection Agency Licensing Board final-order database was located.
• The Legislature’s displayed §87-302 page is future-effective January 1, 2027; it was not used as current October 2026 operative conduct authority.

These failures are not absence findings.

Not read or not performed

• Any actual collection contract, client agreement, purchased-debt sale file, servicing agreement, collector call recording, letter, text, email, payment ledger, credit report, consumer account, assignment schedule, complaint file, or license application.
• Any named-provider NMLS or roster determination.
• A complete public or nonpublic Board hearing file, paper archive, commercial citator, trial-court docket, PACER universe, consent-order archive, or records request.
• Full Nebraska:debt validation and itemization;credit furnishing and disputes;debt ownership documentation;limitations and revival;probate/deceased debt;bankruptcy;collection pleadings;service;default judgments;garnishment;exemptions;repossession;foreclosure;secured transactions;sector regulation;local law; ortribal law.
• No Deep Research, Work, Codex research generation, API, purchase, filing, complaint, contact, account action, private data access, website publication, Chrome control, other chat, CAPTCHA bypass, or local-file save was used.

Focused disposition: Nebraska clearly licenses conventional multi-client third-party collection of both consumer and commercial claims, expressly covers false-name original-creditor collection, and expressly excludes an own-name purchaser of claims. It does not provide one universal state communications code. The strongest Nebraska conduct restrictions identified here are sector-specific, while FDCPA and Regulation F remain conditional federal overlays with materially different actor and debt definitions. The one-client servicer, passive buyer, remote debtor-only operation, repossession business, complete rule history, validation/reporting, and litigation dimensions remain expressly open.

END S_NE PASS-08.