Cease & desist letters. Why do you want to use one? In most cases, using a C&D is one of the worst things you can do unless you fit one of the following situations. 1. You don't owe the debt at all and they won't leave you alone. 2. You are a relative of a debtor and they are hounding you either to pay the debt for the actual debtor or hounding you for information about the debtor. 3. You are an employer and you don't want debt collectors bothering you or your employees. If you don't fit one of those descriptions then cease & desist will most likely get you sued because you have left the debt collector no other way to contact you. All they can legally do after you send cease & desist is to send you one more letter telling you what they intend to do about collecting your debt or that they are returning the debt to the original creditor. That happens sometimes but what do you think the chances are that the debt collector is going to admit that he can't do what he was hired to do? Admitting he can't do the job could very well cost him his customer, your creditor and all his future business. After all, if you hired someone to collect for you would you continue to use him if he admitted he can't do what you hired him to do? Probably not, so the most likely is that he will sue you. Sometimes they do sell the debt to another collector after receiving a cease & desist but if they do that they have violated FDCPA. Of course, breaking the law don't bother them very much.
Actually, there are a few others... The debt is so time-barred that even it's body odor has body odor... But a total C&D is a two-edged sword... As Cap1Sucks pointed out, it really leaves them one option if the debt isn't time-barred... Sue, Sue, or Sue... It's a whole lot better to 'partial C&D'; (at least that's in effect what it does). It's not a part of the C&D clause of the FDCPA; but the 'inconvenient times & places' clause. Something as simple as "don't contact me in any way except for postal mail" tells them that it is inconvenient for you to hear from them via any other communications mediums. Now, if they keep calling after they've received (and allow a day or two to process it) it, then you can spell it out to them that "I told you that it was inconvenient for you to call me, and on xx/xx/xx at xx:xx PM _so_and_so_ called me in violation of 15 USC 1692c(a)(1)."
Time barred Even being time barred does not keep them from filing a lawsuit. They can and sometimes do file suit as much as 20 to 25 years after the debt went into chargeoff. If the defendant does not properly attack the complaint in his answer to the court they can get a judgment no matter how old the debt may be. In many courts you must file the defense or the court won't listen to you even if you go and try to do it verbally. If you do raise the defense in court via a written answer or motion the Plaintiff's attorney will most likely dismiss his own case without prejudice and even though you demanded that it be dismissed with prejudice his dismissal without prejudice will prevail. That allows them to sell the debt to some other debt collector if they choose to do so. Will they sell it to some other debt collector after having dismissed their own case? I've never heard of that happening but I suppose it could. The whole point is that if they sue and you fail to raise the defense you can't do it in an appeal very easily if at all and you won't be able to use it in any other future motions or defenses to garnishment either. Use it at the proper time and in the proper way or lose it.
Partial C & D. I debated about mentioning that but the poster seemed to be talking about a full cease & desist so in order to keep my answer as brief as possible I decided not to do so. Partial C & D under the inconvient times and places also covers phone calls to the consumer's work place One can use a partial which specifies no contact at one's place of employment. I realize that Jam237 is also well aware of that.
a good cease & desist letter Here is a good cease & desist letter In fact, there are two or three different cease & desist letters to be used for different purposes.
i still see sample letters in the 'members only' forum. but looks like they haven't been updated in a while. are any of them still useful?
C&D in the members forum. C & D #1 looks pretty terrible. Here is why. 1. It speaks about complaint to the FTC and the FTC never acts on behalf of any single consumer. They only take complaints and if they get a sufficient number of complaints against any one company they may finally decide to make an example out of them. 2. It speaks about complaint to the state attorney general's office. Attorneys Generals cannot represent individuals in any legal action. Their job is to defend their state against legal problems, advise the state on legal matters and only pursue individual complaints if the consumer has lost money through a scam or what they complain about is somehow in violation of state law. 3. It is almost a demand that they sue you without further ado and that is the most probable result since you effectively leave them with no other means to communicate with you. So if it is your desire that they sue you then by all means use that letter. It should get the job done quite nicely. Cease & Desist #2 does have the advantage that it uses less ink to print. Other than that, it should be equally effective in getting them to sue you. Cease & Desist #3 has almost the same advantage as #2 but additionally is the dumbest of the three since it plainly contradicts itself. In accordance with my rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, please take notice that this is my formal request for your office to cease communication with my by phone and/or by mail. Should your office find it necessary to communicate with me regarding any activity on this account, please do so in writing at the address above. Notice that it says that they are to cease communication with my by phone and/or mail. Then it goes on to say I had hoped that Cease & Desist #4 might be better than it's predecessors but it isn't a Cease & Desist letter at all. Instead it is a letter that someone seems to have imagined would be a great follow-up letter to the initial demand for validation. So, if you want to spend some time off work defending yourself before an unsympathetic judge I'd say that a great way to do it would be to take any one of the three and send it off posthaste. Ought to get the job done very effectively.
