Are You Being Harassed By A Debt Collector Or Debt Collection Agency?

Debt collection abuse takes many forms:  Abusive phone calls. Threatening and deceptive collection letters. Sharing information about your debts with family members and other third parties. These and similar unfair and deceptive debt collection agency practices are disturbing and unpleasant and are prohibited by law.

What can you do?

Know the law.  Understand your rights.  And contact Schlanger & Schlanger for help.

Know the Law:  The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act or “FDCPA” is a federal law that protects consumers from deceptive or abusive practices by debt collectors, collection agents and lawyers who are in the business of collecting debts.

Understand Your Rights Under The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA)

Under the FDCPA, consumers have a number of rights and protections.  A debt collector may not:

• Threaten you with violence;
• Use abusive or obscene language;
• Threaten to send you to jail or have your children taken away from you;
• Falsely imply that the or she is an attorney or works for the government;
• Call you an excessive number of times, or at inconvenient hours (generally, after 9 PM and before 8 AM is off limits);
• Take your wages or property without a court judgment;
• Misrepresent the amount of money you owe or misstate the law;
• Tell you he or she intends to sue you when they have no legal right to do so or don’t have any intention of doing so;
• Make any idle threat, express or implied;
• Tell your neighbors or other third parties about your debt;
• Call you after you have instructed the collector in writing not to contact you.
• If you, as a consumer, are represented by an attorney, the debt collector may not directly contact you. Instead they must direct all communication through your lawyer.
• Engage in other deceptive or unfair practices.

Debtors have rights.   Even if you owe the debt, the FDCPA and other consumer protection laws prohibit debt collection abuse and debt collection harassment.

Under the FDCPA, a consumer whose rights are violated is entitled to actual damages, statutory damages up to $1,000; costs and attorney’s fees.

The FDCPA’s attorney’s fees provision is a mandatory “fee shifting” provision, meaning that, unlike most laws that leave whether or not to award attorney’s fees up to the discretion of the judge, a consumer that prevails in an FDCPA lawsuit is entitled by law to his or her attorney’s fees.  Because the debt collectors debt collection law firms covered under the FDCPA know that they will have to pay attorney’s fees to the consumer if they lose, a consumer attorney is often able to recover attorney’s fees as part of settlement.

Because of these fee shifting provisions, many FDCPA cases can be handled on a contingent or partially contingent basis.

So, what can you do when faced with debt collection abuse and other violations of your rights under the FDCPA?

First, save everything.  Many people who would otherwise have great cases under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), are not able to move forward because they haven’t kept their documents, voice mail recordings from the collector, etc.  Save every letter you sent by the collector and every voice mail message the collector leaves.  Similarly, keep a phone log of all calls from collectors.  The log should include the date and time of every call, what collection agency called, the name (or more likely, pseudonym) of the collection agent, and the contents of the call, including whether any threats or profanity were used.  This documentation can prove crucial down the road, if you need to sue the collector under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) or other consumer protection laws.

Second, request that the debt collection agency verify the debt.  You should do this in writing, not over the phone.  Your letter should be certified, with return receipt requested.   If the debt collector has been contacting you by phone, the letter should also state that you do not wish to be contacted by phone.  Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), a debt collector is not allowed to contact you by phone after you have requested in writing that the collector not do so, nor is a debt collector allowed to contact you after you have requested verification but before it has provided verification.

Third, write to the three major credit reporting agencies  — Equifax, Transunion, and Experian, and request copies of your credit report.  If the report is inaccurate (for example, if a debt you don’t think you owe is on the report, or if the amount owed is incorrect) you can write to the credit reporting agencies explaining that the report is inaccurate and requesting that it be fixed.  You should also send a copy of this letter to the debt collector.  Again, send these letters certified return receipt requested so that you have proof that you sent them and that they were received.  These letters can help you protect your credit while you deal with the collector, and impose obligations on the agencies and the collectors under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that may help your case later.

Finally, if you have been sued, don’t miss any court dates!  Even if you can’t find a lawyer in time, you can attend the court date yourself.  If you tell the judge that you are in the process of finding a lawyer and would like more time, the vast majority of judges will accommodate you by resetting the date of the hearing in order to give you an opportunity to find an attorney with knowledge of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and other consumer protection laws.

Complain about unfair debt collection practices. If you are a victim of unfair debt collection practices described above, you may be able to bring suit under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or other consumer statutes.  You may also wish to consider reporting unfair debt collection practices to regulators, such as the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, the New York Attorney General’s Consumer Bureau, or the Federal Trade Commission. 

Just because you owe money doesn’t mean you don’t have rights.  Even if there is a default judgment against you it may not be too late to challenge the debt or the debt collector’s activities.  Educating yourself about your rights and about steps you can take to protect yourself is a crucial step to ensure that you aren’t tricked or coerced by a debt collection agency.  If you are suffering from debt collection abuse at the hands of a debt collector or debt collection law firm or think that your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) have been violated, contact the consumer lawyers at Schlanger & Schlanger, LLP at 1-800-685-2580 or by filling out our consumer questionnaire.