Alabama Consumer Law Blog

Some collectors are just jerks. Plain and simple. But most are under-trained and overworked with too much pressure to bring in money and promises to pay.

It is like we see with our trucking litigation cases - often times the truck drivers are good people but they are put under so much pressure to make the "runs" that they exceed the number of hours or they don't get enough sleep or they overload their trucks. This, sadly, is true of many collectors. They have an "auto-dialer" that constantly throws calls at them. They are calling people who don't want to talk to the collector. The collector has no control over his or her time - the calls just keep coming off the auto-dialer.

We say all of this to point out that collectors are often mean and short tempered because the collection agencies have put too much pressure on them to collect money. In these hard economic times, when it is harder to pay collectors, the collectors receive even more pressure to get money in or at least promises to pay. Some, unfortunately, give in to the temptation and become abusive in order to get the money in.

If you have been abused by a collector, for whatever reason, feel free to contact us for a free consultation on your rights.

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There is a natural "life cycle" to collection - for about 90 to 120 days a collection agency will make an all out push to get a payment or a promise to pay. This short time period with all the pressure that goes with it for collectors leads to many collection agencies crossing the line and violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

Often times clients are puzzled - they haven't heard from a collector in a year or two and then "all of the sudden" they are bombarded with multiple calls, threats of jail, threats of garnishment, and all sorts of abusive behavior.

While understanding that collection agencies and debt buyers will concentrate their activities for a short period of time (90-120 days) doesn't make it pleasant to deal with, perhaps this knowledge makes it somewhat easier to understand. There is certainly nothing wrong with aggressive legal collection. People should pay their debts. But when collectors cross that line and become abusive (unfair statements/conduct, untrue statements, disrespectful, and undignified conduct) and when it is so concentrated over a period of weeks, it can become very difficult to not let this affect you.

If you are dealing with an abusive debt collector, please contact us and we will gladly advise you of your rights and let you make the best option on how to proceed.

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Debt collectors, including debt buyers, want Alabama consumers to pay money or to promise to pay. Collection agencies evaluate their employees based upon how much money is actually brought in and how much money is promised to be brought in.

This means that often collectors will claim that you promised to pay and that you have now broken your promise. This is a dirty trick of collectors to get you on the defensive and to feel obligated to pay a debt that you may not owe.

Usually collectors who use this unfair strategy will insult you, curse you, or otherwise violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

Being warned is being armed so don't let collection agencies' dirty tricks surprise you as the collectors try and get money or the promise to pay out of you.

If you have been the victim of abusive debt collectors who violate the FDCPA and Alabama state law, feel free to contact us as we sue abusive collection agencies and abusive collectors.

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The Consumerist has a nice post on a wonderful verdict in Florida that has resulted in over $500,000 in attorney's fees along with the multimillion dollar verdict. Often companies such as Equifax, Experian, or Trans Union act like these cases have no value so this is a nice reminder that juries do take seriously the destruction of someone's credit report by a consumer reporting agency.

Remember to pull your credit reports and examine them for errors. If you have errors, dispute them with Equifax, Experian and Trans Union. If these agencies won't correct the errors, feel free to contact us for a free consultation to advise you of your options.

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Posted In: Credit Report Errors , Recent News About Cases

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Our friend Robert Duff has a good post on being sued by debt collectors. He discusses the problems that debt collectors and debt buyers face (such as not being able to prove their case) and also ways that it can be practical to hire a consumer lawyer to defend you if you have been sued. We are amazed when we look on the Alabama court system and see in Jefferson County (Birmingham area) alone that there are hundreds of cases filed every month by debt collectors and debt buyers who cannot or will not prove they own the debt and the Alabama consumer owes it.

Please feel free to contact us if you have been sued by a debt buyer as you have options in defending the case and in potentially suing the debt buyer for violating the law (suing on an old cell phone bill or putting false information on credit reports, etc).

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One threat that is often made against Alabama consumers is that their wages will be garnished. This violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) when there has been no judgment as it is a false statement which is a classic way in which collectors violate the FDCPA.

The Michigan Collection Law Blog reminds us, however, that there is one time in which a collector can make this statement without violating the FDCPA - when certain types of student loans are being collected. As Gary Nitzkin puts it:

I learned about the Administrative Wage Garnishment for the first time today. I understand that since this law was passed in 2003, it has been a huge success in recouping defaulted student loans. Well why shouldn't it? After all, a collector simply has to locate a debtor's place of employment and whammo.....he can garnish the debtor's wages without a judgment.

But just because the debt collector may be able to legitimately threaten garnishment without a judgment, other violations of the FDCPA can still form the basis of a legitimate lawsuit to stop abusive collectors.

Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions about a debt collector's conduct towards you.

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Alabama consumers are facing an onslaught of debt collectors and debt buyers contacting ex-spouses, children, parents, neighbors, co-workers, and other “third parties” in an effort to bring pressure and shame on them to pay the collection agency, even if the Alabama consumer does not owe any money. We want to address this increasing problem and provide some guidance on possible solutions (including suing these abusive collectors) for you if you are dealing with this problem.

In a previous post, we addressed the four elements which are necessary for a collection agency’s actions to be covered by the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA). We also addressed the four types of violations that commonly occur.

Probably one the most unfair and disrespectful types of misconduct that debt collectors and debt buyers engage in is this very subject of contacting third parties - that is anyone who is not the debtor or the debtor’s spouse.

Here is the way that this normally works. The debt collector will be unsuccessful in getting the consumer to agree to pay or to actually pay. We will discuss this in a further blog post, but debt collectors are interested in obtaining two things from consumers: (1) Payment or (2) A promise to pay.

When a debt collector can not obtain one of these two things, then the pressure must be intensified against the consumer to force the consumer to either pay or promise to pay. One of the most effective ways to do this is to contact third parties. So the debt collector will start calling all of the consumer’s neighbors. The conversation will go something like this.

Debt collector: I was trying to reach Joe Consumer and I have not been able to get him. Do you know his phone number?

Neighbor: Yes he lives next door to me. Why do you need this information?

Debt collector: Well, I can’t get him to return my phone calls. Is everything okay with him?

Neighbor: I think so. What’s wrong?

Debt collector: I don’t know. Do you want to go check on him?

Neighbor: Sure.

Debt collector: When you do, ask him to call me at 205-555-5555 and tell him it’s an important message.

This is a violation of the FDCPA.

The FDCPA only allows a debt collector to contact a third party to find out what is called “location information”. This means the consumer’s:

(1) Home phone number
(2) Home address, and
(3) Place of employment.

The debt collector is not allowed to ask the third party to give a message to the consumer, or to call the consumer, or to do anything other than to provide the location information. If the collection agency has the location information, then it is not allowed to request this information from a third party as there is no need for it, and in fact the only reason to request that would be to intimidate the consumer.

If you are dealing with a collection agency or a debt buyer and they have contacted third parties, please feel free to contact us if you live in Alabama, or contact a local consumer attorney to help you understand your rights and whether it would be appropriate to file suit against the collection agency for violating your federal rights in this way.

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We recently filed suit for an Alabama consumer who has been attempting to clear his credit report of a false Verizon Wireless account for many years now. As many consumers have discovered to their horror, sometimes accounts appear on their credit reports which do not belong to them, and when that is explained to the credit reporting agencies (such as Equifax, Experian and TransUnion) and to the creditor/furnisher of information (such as Verizon, Bank of America, Capital One, etc.) the information is often not removed. This can be very frustrating as it can impact your credit worthiness as well as being an extraordinarily frustrating event knowing that false information is being communicated about you.

As we have discussed elsewhere, it is a good idea to check your credit reports for free and if there is false information on there, that information should be disputed directly with the credit reporting agencies and oftentimes with a copy of the dispute letter going to the creditor/furnisher.

If you are facing this situation, please feel free to contact us for a free consultation if you live in Alabama.

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We now look at what are some of the more common types of violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) that will allow an Alabama consumer to sue a debt collector or debt buyer. Our previous post listed the four requirements that must be present in order to be under the protection of the FDCPA.

While the FDCPA is a rather detailed statute that covers many types of violations, for our purposes the FDCPA is violated when any of the following occurs by a debt collector (i.e. “collection agency” or debt buyer):

1. Untrue statements to the Alabama consumer; or
2. Unfair statements or conduct towards the Alabama consumer; or
3. Disrespectful conduct or language towards the Alabama consumer; or
4. Undignified treatment of the Alabama consumer by the debt collector.

We will look at these four types of violations in detail later but here is a quick example on each one.

If, for example, a debt collector lies to an Alabama consumer by saying a lawsuit has been filed when no lawsuit has been filed – that is a violation. It’s a lie or “untrue statement” to intimidate the Alabama consumer into paying a debt (which may or may not be owed).

One of the most common “unfair” dirty tricks of debt collectors is to call family members (other than a spouse) or co workers or neighbors and ask them to “get a message to Joe Consumer because he won’t call me back for an important business matter” – this is absolutely against the law and is unfair because it invades the consumer’s privacy and brings the pressure of “shame” on him or her in order to force a payment of a debt. We will discuss this in detail later but many people have been forced by this unfair and dirty trick type of tactic to pay bills that they do not owe because they cannot deal with the embarrassment of family or neighbors or co-workers knowing that the consumer supposedly owes a debt and is not paying it.

If a debt collector uses profanity or screams insults at an Alabama consumer – this would qualify as “disrespectful” language and would violate the FDCPA.

If the debt collector put a note up on the door that says an Alabama consumer is a deadbeat – this would qualify as “undignified” behavior.

If you are dealing with a debt collector or a debt buyer, we suggest you contact a consumer attorney to help you and to advise you on whether the debt collector has crossed the line into illegal debt collection. Please feel free to contact us if you live in Alabama.

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Alabama consumers are often victims of abusive debt collectors or junk debt buyers and can sue (under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and/or Alabama law) these collectors or debt scavengers when the following four requirements are satisfied:

1. The Alabama resident is a “consumer” (that is not a corporation or partnership, etc);

2. The debt being collected is a “consumer debt” – a debt that was for personal, family, or household purposes (that is not a business debt);

3. The person or company collecting is a “debt collector” (that is not the original creditor but a third party company or a debt buyer); and

4. The debt collector has violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA).

Our next post in this series will address what is a violation of the FDCPA. If you are being contacted by a debt collector or junk debt buyer – either by phone or by letter – please feel free to contact us for a free consultation in our office so we can discuss your particular situation and how the law applies to you.

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