I had a traffic ticket. It went unpaid and was turned over to a CA. A rediculous amount of money was added to the original amount by the CA. I believed that the fee was excessive so I called the AG. At the same time the AG was investigating the matter, I requested validation. While trying to validate the debt the CA discovered that the OC did not have a signed time/pay agreement with me, thus no signed contract, and no debt to be assigned or sold. They claimed I took both copies (mine and the courts) of the contract the year before when I appeared in court. Like the people appearing in court have control of the stack of contracts! The CA had to turn the debt back over to the munuicipal courts. The CA called me and said that the account was being turned back over to the court system and by the next day there would probably be a warrant out for my arrest. I immediately called the courts. They told me that the procedure would be 1) I would be summoned through the mail to appear in traffic court again. 2) I would sign a new time/pay agreement with the courts. 3) If I didn't follow through with the monthly payments, the debt would be turned over to collections. No arrest. No arrest warrant. I blew off the conversation with the CA as I didn't have a recording of the call. Yesterday, I received a letter from the Consumer Protection Agency (AG office) saying that the account had been removed from my credit report and they considered this case closed. However, they attached the CA's reply to their office regarding the investigation. The note says that the debt was cancelled back to the county justice court system per their (the court's) request. Blah, Blah, Then QUOTE "There is now a warrant out for his arrest. I have spoken with him about this. Thank you" UNQUOTE. Is this a violation? If so, what action should I take now?
No. A traffic ticket is not a consumer debt and FDCPA does not apply. What action should you take? Pay it this time around and be done with it.
It looks like they were trying to take one last shot at you before they lost the opportunity to get their fee for collecting and had to send it back. They first tried blaming you for their failure to be able to validate, then they threatened you with arrest, both abusive and deceptive under normal FDCPA rules, which they know full well whether it applies here or not. Deception is apparently just second nature. Get the matter resolved and paid first before you end up dealing with another CA. If you want to look at it further, you might check into your state's consumer protection laws, which might have a broader definition of what is covered. In addition, there might be consumer protection requirements in state law allowing collection of tickets by private CAs, or if your state requires that CAs be licensed, the business and professions code or equivalent might have parallel anti-abuse or anti-deception language that you could use in a complaint against the CA thru the agency regulating them. Furthermore, a follow-up letter to your AG about the matter might be appropriate, as not only did they threaten you with arrest, but they also falsely claimed to the AG that there was a warrant out for your arrest. Making false statements to law enforcement in the course of an investigation, including your AG investigating your complaint, may break other laws. A complaint to the agency that contracted with them to collect on these tickets might also be appropriate, since they have conveniently documented their "arrest warrant" claim in the letter to the AG. Government agencies might not want to contract with CAs using deception and false threats, and that respond to an AG request for information with the same false claims, for their own political or liability reasons. In addition, they may still have liability under FCRA, which would cover their erroneous reporting whether this is a consumer debt or not. Their reply to your dispute with their threats and false claims instead of immediately correcting might make any continued reporting after they attempted to deceive you and ignore your dispute following receiving your dispute "willfull" reporting of erroneous information. What's it worth? Hard to say. But at a minimum, abusive behavior by employees, agents, or contractors should always be brought to the attention of the responsible party. You are not limited to only "legal" responses, i.e. sueing in court, but may choose whatever complaint path you think might work. Otherwise the behavior will continue.
