What to do about Abusive Creditors
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act provides consumers with protections against unfair debt collection practices and creditor harassment. Creditors must abide by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Rosenthal Act, or face potential legal consequences. No matter how much you may owe any creditor, the laws for fair debt collection practices remain the same. Some creditors take advantage of the fact that most consumers are not informed of their rights when it comes to fair debt collection, and may attempt to collect a debt through the use of illegal debt collection practices.
What Constitutes an Abusive Creditor?
When a creditor contacts you about a debt, you may not consider whether or not the debt collection attempt is legal. There are many questionable debt collection practices, but the following are considered to be abusive in the eyes of the law:
1. Repeated telephone calls. Creditors are only allowed to make contact with you once per day. So if a creditor calls about a bill you owe, and speaks with you about the bill, they may not call back again that day. Repeated phone calls can be considered harassment.
2. Calls at inconvenient times. Creditors may not call at any time that is inconvenient for you, provided they had reason to know that it would be an inconvenient time. In legal terms, any calls before 8AM your local time, and any calls after 9PM your local time are considered inconvenient.
3. Use of misleading documentation. Creditors cannot send documents that appear to be court documents if they are not. And they cannot misrepresent the documents that they send – if they are legally binding, then the documents must state so, plainly.
4. Use of threatening language. Creditors may not use profanity or verbal abuse in any telephone contact. They may not threaten to sue or garnish wages – however, they may inform you that they intend to do either of those, as long as they really intend to follow through.
5. Continued contact attempts, after being told to cease contact. This is particularly true if you have an attorney who is representing your debt matters. Your creditor cannot continue to try to contact you after you have referred them to your attorney who is handling the case.
Stopping the Abuse
Filing for bankruptcy in California can put a stop to almost all types of collection attempts, and effectively end much of the creditor harassment that you may be experiencing. Also, having legal representation can afford you with an added measure of security – most creditors will not attempt to harass an individual who has obtained legal counsel. If you are worried about potential creditor abuse, you should talk to a professional California Bankruptcy Attorney as soon as possible. You may be able to recover damages due to the abusive treatment of your creditors, depending upon your circumstances.
Stopping abusive creditors takes a proactive approach. Make certain that your creditors know that you are aware of your legal rights. Don’t be afraid to be assertive, but keep your contact with creditors on a professional level – even if the creditor yells or uses profane language, don’t respond in kind. Your professionalism can go a long way towards helping your court case if it turns out that a creditor has violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices act. If you have any questions about abusive creditors and how you should handle the potential complications, contact our office and arrange for your free, no-obligation case evaluation. We will provide you with solid legal advice tailored to your particular situation. Don’t wait – the sooner you have the information you need, the better prepared you will be when it comes to dealing with potential creditor abuse.