Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster is pushing for changes to state court rules in an effort to halt what he calls abusive debt-collection actions that often target minorities and the poor.
Speaking Thursday, Koster said he has asked the Missouri Supreme Court's Commission on Racial and Ethnic Fairness to change court rules, forcing creditors to prove at the outset of litigation their right to pursue a debt.
The treatment of minority residents has come under scrutiny in the 16 months since the fatal shooting in Ferguson of 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed.
The white officer who shot Brown, Darren Wilson, was not charged, but the shooting prompted an examination of the way courts, police and others interact with minority residents in the St. Louis region.
