We found this recent short video where our friend Pete Barry discusses an overview of harassing conduct by debt collectors.
If you live in Alabama and are facing harassment by abusive collection agencies or debt collectors, please contact us as we sue abusive debt collectors and we will be happy to sit down with you for a free consultation and explain your options to you.
As most of you know we think the world of Pete Barry who has focused his entire practice on suing abusive debt collectors. He was recently on Fox News Morning Show with some other guests and he emailed us these Youtube.com videos. Enjoy them and we are sure you will find useful information in these.
If you live in Alabama and are facing harassment by abusive collection agencies or debt collectors, please contact us as we sue abusive debt collectors and we will be happy to sit down with you for a free consultation and explain your options to you.
Denise Richardson has an excellent summary of the recent Trans Union settlement and what that means for consumers (particularly for preventing Identity Theft) in her post here. We recommend studying her post and then making your own decision as to what is best for you.
If you live in Alabama and have questions about Identity Theft, feel free to contact us for a free consultation on your options.
Our friends at the CL&P blog have posted a short nice article on a recent ruling from New Mexico striking down an unfriendly provision in an arbitration agreement banning class actions. This was from Dell which had misrepresented the amount of memory in computers but it was not worth any one's time to pursue it if a class action device could not be used. Hopefully this trend will continue. We'll keep you posted.
We started this blog off with the suggestion that you pull your credit reports, review them, and dispute any errors with the consumer reporting agencies or credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union). When that does not correct false items, it is time to go on to the fourth step which is to sue Equifax, Experian, Transunion, and any other responsible parties such as the creditor or furnisher of information.
Who Can I Sue?
If you have disputed the inaccurate item and it still is wrong, then you normally can sue the credit reporting agency (Equifax, Experian, Trans Union, etc) and normally you can also sue the "furnisher" - the creditor or collector who supplied (furnished) the information to the credit reporting agency.
What Law Applies?
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) is the main law that applies. This federal law explains what the obligations are of the credit bureaus and the creditors or collectors who furnish information to the credit bureaus. It also describes when and who you can sue and what you can be awarded in way of damages.
Alabama state law (or your state if you are outside of Alabama) applies also but there are some issues related to interaction of federal and state law that can get a little bit convoluted but the basic gist is the FCRA will apply and state law may apply.
What Court Can I File Suit In?
You can file a FCRA claim in federal court and normally you can also file these types of claims in state court. If you bring a claim under the FCRA the defendants will often "remove" or transfer your case from state court to federal court. There are advantages and disadvantages to being in federal court and to being in state court. It varies by region, state, and even county but a knowledgeable consumer lawyer in your area can properly advise you on this issue.
Do I Need A Lawyer?
You don't have to have a lawyer but if you have a legitimate case you should strongly consider hiring a lawyer. The FCRA has some strange requirements that often even lawyers don't know about (unless they focus their practice on consumer cases). People have been successful handling these types of cases without lawyers but, as we will discuss next, hiring a consumer lawyer should not cost you any money out of your pocket and given the expertise you will have on your side facing huge companies who have their own lawyers, it certainly is worth talking to a consumer lawyer before filing your case.
What Will A Lawyer Cost Me?
We do not charge to meet with you and we don't ask you to pay us anything out of your pocket. We either charge a contingency hourly rate so we simply total our hours up and subtract that from the settlement or we have a percentage we are paid out of any recovery to you. The bottom line is we only get paid if you get compensated for the damage you have suffered. The great thing about the FCRA is sometimes at the end of the case the judge will order the defendants to pay our fees. This is poetic justice - the credit bureaus who have mistreated you now have to pay for your lawyer to represent you against them.
What Can I Receive From The Lawsuit?
The law says you can be compensated for your damages and injuries. This includes, normally, mental anguish or emotional distress damages. Under certain circumstances you can recover punitive damages which have two functions:
1. Punish the defendant for its reckless or intentional conduct;
2. Deter the defendant and similar companies from doing this type of reckless or intentional conduct in the future.
You can also often recover attorney's fees to help pay for your lawyer - the defendant can be ordered to pay this money.
What Action Do I Need To Take Right Now?
Assuming you have pulled your credit reports, reviewed them, disputed any errors with the consumer reporting agencies or credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union), and the error still remains, it is time to contact us if you live in Alabama. If you do not feel comfortable reviewing and disputing, feel free to contact us and we will be more than happy to meet with you and lay out your options. We do not charge to meet with you. We make our money when we bring solid cases of liability and damages against the credit reporting agencies and the creditors or furnishers who have supplied false information about our clients. We look forward to helping you in any way we can. Contact us today and let us help you.
We have filed numerous lawsuits against Palisades (a prominent debt buyer which sues hundreds of Alabama consumers a month). Palisades lost its collection lawsuit against our client but for some unexplainable reason refused to delete its account from her credit report. Not only did it refuse to delete the account (after the Judge said she did not owe any money to Palisades) but Palisades continued to update her account on a regular basis making it appear that she still owed the money even as recently as this year. In addition, Palisades send the debt out to a collection agency so that the collection agency could attempt to force her to pay the money that a Judge said she did not owe.
As we are blogged about in the past, there is an epidemic in Alabama of debt buyers suing people who do not owe any money to the debt buyer. As if this was not bad enough, the debt buyers refuse to correct their credit reports. The excuse we have always heard is that the debt buyers sue so many consumers in Alabama that they cannot be expected to know who they have sued; much less who has beat the debt buyer in the suit. In this particular case, it is interesting that the debt buyer Palisades lost its case against our client in late 2006, but yet in 2008, it was still reporting the debt as being owed and has referred it out even this year to a collection agency to collect this money from our client. This certainly cast great doubt upon the claims that it simply takes a while for a debt buyer to know when it has lost the case even though the law says that as soon as the debt buyer has lost the case, it is absolutely charged with that knowledge.
If you would like to read the complaint, you can do so by clicking here and reading the pdf version of the filed complaint from our website. If you have been sued by a debt buyer and won your case (verdict for defendant, dismissal or dismissal with prejudice) then we strongly urge you to check your credit reports and if the debt buyer is still listed on there, please feel free to contact us for additional information on what your options are at this point.
In this post we will look at how our clients typically answer Alabama collection lawsuits filed by debt buyers.
You have been accused of owing the debt buyer money. Our clients do not agree with this as typically the first time they have ever heard of the debt buyer is when they get sued - so they typically deny liability. This is because of the following three reasons which we typically put in answers:
1. The debt buyer does not own the debt;
2. Consumer does not owe the debt buyer; and
3. The statute of limitations has expired.
Of course your situation is unique and we can't advise you how to answer a lawsuit but the critical thing we can tell you is to answer it! Don't allow a default judgment to be entered against you.
Our next post will examine what happens after you file an answer denying the allegations of the debt buyer.
This is a fascinating post by Denise Richardson related to a different credit report that can impact you - the Work Number from TALX Corp. Here's how it works:
The next time you apply for a loan or a new job, a lender or prospective employer might go online to access a database instead of calling your human resources department to verify your employment and income.In most cases, they'll be contacting a company called TALX Corp., which developed a service called The Work Number.
Companies, government agencies and creditors, such as credit card companies and mortgage lenders, have been using The Work Number for almost a decade, tapping into a database with approximately 165 million to 170 million individual records (an employee has a separate record for each employer) covering roughly a third of the American work force, says Janet Ford, vice president of St. Louis-based TALX, which is a subsidiary of credit bureau Equifax.
Employers use TALX to handle salary and employment verifications and, in turn, share their payroll information and often several years' worth of payroll records. Employees can challenge the accuracy of any information.
Keep reading the whole story here.
You can pull a copy of your report for free every 12 months, just like a regular credit report by visiting the website here or calling 1-866-604-6570.
This credit report is like others - review the information and then if it is wrong dispute it. Feel free to contact us if you have any questions about this credit report or any other credit reporting issues.
Here is the final post on the things NOT to do if filing bankruptcy..... We recommend you read these if you are considering bankruptcy as knowing these things may save you a lot of misery.
If you are considering bankruptcy, you may want to read this second post by Jonathon Becker on what not to do.
If you are facing financial pressures and dealing with abusive debt collectors, let us know as we may be able to give you some options other than bankruptcy.
While we normally advise our clients who are sued by debt buyers to fight the lawsuit as debt buyers are unwilling or unable to prove their case, we do understand the desire of some Alabama consumers to settle the lawsuit filed by a debt buyer. If you decide to go this route, please be aware of several looming dangers and take steps to protect yourself. We will address in a quick fashion four of the biggest ones that will face you.
First Danger - Default Judgments
First, we have seen situations where Alabama consumers have settled with the debt collector/debt buyer (through the collector's attorney) and even though the case was settled, the debt buyer still moves for and gets a default judgment. This results in a judgment on your credit report for many years and can lead to garnishments and constant problems. The judges who enter these default judgments are not to blame as they are being misled by the debt buyers who intentionally do not tell the judge that the case is settled. Instead the debt buyers simply tell the judge that the defendant (Alabama consumer) failed to respond to the collection lawsuit.
Solution To First Danger - Written Confirmation
The solution is to never rely on anything that the debt buyer tells you. Confirm everything in writing to the debt buyer's attorney. Fax it. Mail it. Email it. Send it certified. Every way you can think of. Put in writing that the case is settled and that the lawsuit will be dismissed with prejudice (see the "Second Danger" below for more on this) and that you do not need to file an answer. Put in there that the debt buyer promises to not move for a default judgment against you if you pay the settlement. Put the way the payment is to be made (check, cash, money order, etc) and when it is due. Make the debt buyer respond, in writing, that your written letter or email is accurate. If the debt buyer or its lawyer won't agree to this in writing, you should at least be honest with yourself that you are vulnerable to the debt buyer getting a default judgment against you.....Solution? Don't settle without the written document.
Second Danger - Dismissal Without Prejudice
Debt buyers will sometimes not go for the default judgment but instead will actually request the court to dismiss the case but withOUT prejudice. They do this so they can sue you again. Kind of defeats the purpose of settling with them, huh? If you are going to settle the case, you should be done with it. Forever. Not having to deal with the debt buyer suing you again or transferring it to a debt collector.
Solution To Second Danger - Written Agreement
This will sound like the solution to the first danger - that's because having a written agreement is so important. The safest thing is to hire a lawyer to write up the agreement but if you don't do that then at least put in writing and have the debt buyer agree that the case will be dismissed WITH prejudice. This means you can never be sued again for this debt.
Third Danger - Account Stays On Credit Report
You settle the case. Most people expect the account (or "trade-line") to be removed from their credit reports but this normally does not happen. Often the debt buyers will simply change the status to "settled" and will show it as a zero balance account. This is a negative item on your credit report that can hurt you for many years to come.
Solution To Third Danger - Agreement To Delete
You'll notice a theme - get the agreement in writing! Specifically on the credit report issue, have an agreement with the debt buyer that upon payment the debt buyer will request that the consumer reporting agencies (or credit bureaus) - Equifax, Experian, Trans Union, and whoever else the debt buyer reports to - delete the account. Often times the debt buyer will swear that the country would fall apart if they requested the deletion but it is a simple matter that takes about 2 minutes for the debt buyer to do. The credit bureaus don't care - they'll normally do whatever the debt buyer tells them (that's a problem when you defeat the debt buyer in a lawsuit).
Fourth Danger - Account On Credit Report For Full Balance
Even if you don't have a written agreement, the debt buyer should still update the credit bureaus that you have paid off the debt and it should have a zero balance - you don't owe anything as it settled so it must show a zero balance. Amazingly, many debt buyers feel that because at one time you supposedly owed them (which we have never seen proven) that they can keep the balance on your report for years and years even after you settled it. This demonstrates the malice and vindictiveness of these debt buyers who do this. Truly one of the most nasty dirty tricks with Alabama consumers' credit reports.
Solution To Fourth Danger - Dispute And/Or Sue
You can always check your credit reports for free, review them to see what the debt buyer is saying about you, and then dispute directly with the credit bureaus. If it is not corrected, sue the debt buyers and, if appropriate, the credit reporting agencies.
Another option, particularly if the debt buyer has updated the credit reports after the settlement (a fairly common practice) and has shown it with a balance owed, you may be able to sue right then under state law and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Also, you should look at your credit reports to see if they debt buyer pulled your credit report after the settlement. If so, it is likely it had no right to do and this will violate the Fair Credit Reporting Act and potentially expose the debt buyer to punitive damages to try and persuade these guys to stop taking these wrongful actions.
What To Do Right Now
Here's the bottom line - if you have been sued feel free to call us - we'll give you your options. Bring us your cooperation and participation - leave your wallet at home. We may can defend you against these debt buyers. But if you decide to settle it, please keep the things we discussed in this blog post. If you have been burned by one of these debt buyer dirty tricks, come see us. We sue abusive debt collectors. We can't think of many more abusive dirty tricks than these - talk to us about suing the debt buyer who lied to you or put false information on your credit reports.
We don't file bankruptcy cases but we often sue abusive debt collectors and creditors who violate bankruptcy orders by collecting debts that have been discharged or reporting balances on discharged debts. But we wanted to share this post by Jonathon Becker which we read on the excellent Bankruptcy Law Network
We hope you don't need to file bankruptcy but if you do keep these in mind as you talk to your bankruptcy attorney.
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