Anyone know who this is and/or who they represent? He has charge offs from Best Buy, Providian, Home Depot, HSBC and God knows what else. I want to pay these off but want to make sure we're dealing with legit collectors. All he said to the girl in personnel was, "tell him to call me or we will take the next step." DH didn't write the number down.
It's really impossible to say, did you google Attorney Barrett? There are at least thousands of hits for that name, so it's impossible to root down to even a law firm, let lone a possible client.
I did but like you say, there were many. I just tried again with "collections Barrett" and think I found him - Nicholas Barrett & Associates? What are my options? Seems to be just him. Now to find out what account...
Who is he collecting for? I googled him and he is in Providence RI .July 25, 2008 Regular Job Openings 812 Temp Job Openings 133 Companies 810 Resumes 16091 Law Office of Nicholas Barrett & Associates Company Info HR Contact Info Law Office of Nicholas Barrett & Associates 999 So. Broadway East Providence, Rhode Island 02914 Phone: 401-438-9000 Fax: 401-490-8164 Type: For Profit Industries: Legal/Finance Karen Martel Human Resources Administrator Phone: 401-438-9000 X121 Fax: 401-490-8164 Email: Karen@NBALaw.com A cover letter is Required Accept resumes: By Email By Fax Phone inquiries Not Accepted Special Messages We're a firm that concentrates on real estate and collections matters. We have grown from 5 employees to 35 employees in under 5 years, and we're growing again. We've recently outgrown our previous location and moved into a bright and busy new location to accomodate our growth!
You're good! The site I found said "Sole Practitioner" and I thought that meant it was a small potatoes place, guess not. Not sure who he's collecting for - could be Providian or Home Depot. I'll have to go through some papers in the basement to see if we have any communication from them. Should I worry more since he's local?
Of course one question that would be nice to answer is whether or not this individual is really a lawyer. If not, he's probably violating some law or another by insisting that he is a lawyer. And what sort of real lawyer has the time in his busy life to make phone calls like this, hinting at nebulous further actions? They'd have to be pretty junior grade. I would consider getting the person who took the phone call to write down what was said, the claim about being a lawyer, the call back number and anything else. This information could later be put into an affidavit if needed. Trying to go back in six months and ask someone what someone else said is less believable than getting it on paper right away.
EXACTLY I one time got a phone call from a JDB and the woman told me she was a lawyer. I asked her the question again and she said she was indeed a lawyer. THe way she was speaking I didn't think so ; ) Well, I then told her for my own records I was going to now be taping the call and when I asked her one more time if she was a lawyer, she then said she was a para legal. I then asked her if she knew it was illegal for her to say she was a lawyer and she wasn't? Well guess what? I NEVER Heard from the JDB again. I wish I did have her on tape though when she was claiming to be a lawyer. That said even though you do not have things on tape if you keep a journal as to what was said and all the info along with it it works in court for you IME. Woofer
I wouldn't worry. I think they are going to create many violations for you if you keep on top of it ; ) $$$$$$$$$ Woofer
More than likely there really is an attorney. Most cases of CAs being sued for falsely represent that the communication is from an attorney, is from facsimile signatures showing that the 'attorney' had insignificant interaction with the case file to justify the use of an attorney letterhead. "Rent-A-Letterhead" cases which can also get the OC to be counted as a CA - breaking the OC immunity from the FDCPA - for the OC attempting to do business under a different name. The most prominent case of this is the Household/GM "Dickerson" case, where Household essentially had Dickerson draft one letter, give Household his facsimile signature, and Household with very little intervention from Dickerson (except for running the list through a few automated error checking databases), sent the letter from a mass-mailer. Creditor Held Liable in FDCPA Class Action http://www.bankersonline.com/lending/fdcpacase.pdf
Somewhere? Probably. Is the person who called a real attorney? That's less likely, but who knows? There is a glut of lawyers in America so some of them could be doubling as collection agency agents. But written communication is where most FDCPA cases go because that can be proved, not because there aren't other violations. One reason that CAs don't want to write anything down is because they can be sued for it, better to call you up and claim to be an attorney. How are you going to prove that the person really claimed that? They'll deny it, never happened. It's a variation on that Vegas line, "What happens on the phone, stays on the phone".
Here's an update... Hubby received a summons yesterday. The plaintiff is Kramer Credit Services with the Plaintiff's attorney listed as Nicholas Barrett. This is a WAMU/Providian account that The Bureaus had in 9/07. I did find a letter from Barrett claiming Kramer had purchased the debt (Kramer is Barrett, I guess he has his own collection company and represents himself). It went from $8k to WAMU to $11.5k to The Bureaus to $13.4k to Barrett yet the summons says $9.6k. One thing to note is that there is no case number on the summons. I called the court and they found nothing under his name. The clerk said they could serve and not file, that seems kind of sneaky - like trying to get you to pay with the threat of litigation. So I guess I'll file an answer for him and then wait to see what happens next.
You are dealing with sneaks. You should follow your court rules. If it allows this, you should follow it exactly.
It says the same thing a typical summons would say, "file your answer within 20 days, blah, blah, blah." I'll just type up a general denial, have it notarized, and he can file it with the court. I don't know how they'll reference the answer without a case number though. I'm seeing an awful lot of info about freezing bank accounts and pre-judgement garnishments...kind of scary. How can I find out if my state allows that? Because if they do we might need to move our bank to under the mattress land.
I don't think Minnesota is the only place that has it (or something reasonably close that is called by another name) ...
File your answer with the court as well. To find out your state laws, it's best to check with an attorney licensed in your state, or contact the AG's office and see if the laws are online somewhere.
I was kidding almost everything I googled about "pocket service" had Minnesota somewhere in the copy...seems quite prevalent there.
