Suing Debt Collectors
When you’re being harassed by a collection agency, you can sue a debt collector under certain circumstances. If you’ve ever had problems paying your bills and had the debts pile up due to job loss, or the death or prolonged illness of someone in your family. You may have been the victim of an unethical collection agency. When a creditor has problems collecting debts owed, they often turn their delinquent accounts over to a third party which could either be a lawyer or a collection company. Sometimes they sell their accounts to companies that are less than ethical and routinely use devious and sometimes unlawful methods of collecting debts.
Some practices which are common occurrences are harassing phone calls, which may happen several times everyday. You could get the calls at home or at work, and may be from a person or an automated dialing system, which is commonly used by a lot of companies. You could also receive certified letters or postcards in the mail. Occasionally, you’ll get emails from collections companies, but this isn’t as common as repeated phone calls. Every year thousands of complaints are received by the Attorney General’s office in each state about collections companies. In 2009, over 60,000 complaints were received by consumers from around the country.
One woman in Texas had a mother who worked in a nursing home. She had been working there for many years, and had a good insurance plan. However, she developed cancer which was already in stage 4 when it was diagnosed. The cancer was terminal. She had chemotherapy and radiation treatments and was in and out of the hospital. As a last resort, she underwent surgery, but the cancer had already spread too far. She died a few weeks later. The day after her funeral, the collection calls started. Her daughter was dealing with a traumatic loss, but the company hired to get the medical bills paid didn’t care. The total was in the neighborhood of $750,000. This is quite typical. She wasn’t threatened in any way, but the collection company had no compassion for her situation and called her at home and at work several times a day. She eventually hired a fair debt attorney who has been handling her case.
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, known as the FDCPA, was introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, and signed into law by the United States Congress in 1978. The Act works along with the Consumer Credit Protection Act and laws within some of the states to work for consumers. The Act works to govern all of the actions of third party collection agencies, hired by creditors to collect debts that consumers owe, or allegedly owe for services or products. There was so much misuse by third party agencies collection agencies, that Congress was prompted to sign into law the Act to protect consumers from unscrupulous collection companies.
There are ways in which you can sue a debt collector, but you must know what’s involved before taking any action, and you should know what the Act covers. It was designed to prevent unfair or unethical collections methods by third parties hired to collect personal debts from consumers. A personal debt can include auto or home loans, credit card debt, medical bills, and pay day loans, which have gotten a lot of people into trouble. In order to deal effectively with third party companies, you have to know what your consumer rights are and what debt collectors are legally entitled to do. Their actions are limited and if you’re being harassed, you may have grounds to sue a debt collector.
A third party debt collector may call you at home. However, they may not make calls anytime before 8 am, or after 9 pm. As far as calling you at work, they may make calls to your employer, but cannot do it if the company has a policy against personal calls. If you want the calls at work to stop, you must send the collection agency a request in writing. Send your letter by Certified Mail and make sure you keep a copy of it for your records. They may not call a cell phone number unless they have been given permission. In regard to phone calls, they may not call any third party in order to get personal information about you unless you have given your consent. The only exceptions are that they may talk to your spouse or a parent, if you are underage. A collection company may not call you at any time you consider to be inconvenient. Cases involving inconvenient times to call have stood up in court. If they contact you by mail, they’re strictly forbidden to use postcards with information about your debt.
A debt collector may not in any way use threats. This includes threatening to have you arrested and your property seized. They can’t threaten legal action unless it’s actually being contemplated by the creditor, and in this case they still can’t make threats against you. They can’t make any threats, implied or otherwise, against you or your family, or use abusive language. If a collections company does any of these things, they could have to pay up to $1,000 for each offense. Some debt collector will threaten to have your name published on a list of people who have not paid their debts. This is illegal.
If you’re dealing with third party collections agents and feel that your rights have been violated, you have the right to challenge the company. If you’re contemplating a lawsuit, here’s what you need to know before taking any action. If a collection agency contacts you, within 30 days you may dispute part of or the entire debt. The third party has to provide proof in writing of what you owe, and they are required to stop contacting you until they mail you proof of the debt. You can send a written request to the collector ordering them to stop all communications with you. They can only contact you once more and that’s to let you know any actions that will be taken or that there’s no further need to contact you.
If you want to sue a debt collector, these are the circumstances under which it can be done. You can sue a creditor if they don’t report your credit history accurately, or if you dispute an item on your credit report and they don’t report it as being disputed to the credit bureaus. You can sue them if they get a copy of your credit report without your permission. You may also sue if they don’t correct inaccurate information after you’ve reported it or if they simply refuse to correct the inaccurate information. If they put an item back in your report that was removed, they must notify you in writing within 5 business days. If they don’t respond to your disputes in writing within 30 days, you can file a lawsuit, but if the creditor has contacted them, the limit may be 45 days. If you are harassed, misrepresented, or threatened in any way, you may have grounds to file a lawsuit against the collection agency. For each violation, a fine of up to $1,000 could be paid to you.
Now you may be asking yourself “Do I have a case against my collection agency” or “How can I afford an attorney” or “How much will it cost?” Well, there’s a simple and cheap answer. How about $25.00 per month for unlimited telephone consultations with a top-rated and licensed attorney in your state?