Sean X. Kelly of Marks, O’Neill’s New Jersey office recently won a motion to dismiss in a New Jersey federal court action asserting  FDCPA and fraud claims against a law firm brought by a defendant in a foreclosure action.  Our team argued that the state law claims were barred by the litigation privilege because the defendant firm represented the foreclosing bank in the underlying foreclosure proceeding.  We also argued that the FDCPA claim was barred on federal abstention grounds because the plaintiff had the opportunity to raise it in the underlying state foreclosure proceedings, but failed to do so.  The Court agreed with both arguments and dismissed the matter before any discovery was necessitated.