Hello all, I've learned alot from this website. Enough that I was successfully able to sue Mitsubishi, forcing them to settle and repair my credit report, and make a few thousand dollars for my pain and suffering. Now for my question. My sister has had numerous credit problems in the past and, to my knowledge, most of them are fixed. A couple days ago, a collection agency sent a letter to my sister's job, demanding that they tell them her address, phone number and SSN. Fortunately, they didn't do that and informed my sister of the letter. What are your recommendations? I'd love to sue the agency, if for nothing more than the complete embarassment of this situation.
It's a FDCPA violation insofar as they disclosed information to a third-party. Probably. The fact that it came from a collection agency is likely sufficient but, they would defend it by stating they didn't disclose anything which is likely technically true. I think the better application would come under the abuse and harrassment framework but, again, it isn't a slam dunk. Moreover, your looking at $1k max w/ attorney's fees if you retain someone. You'll have to consider whether it is worth it in that regard.
The problem here is that they are threatening the employer with further action if they don't disclose the information.
On your original post, they were riding the edge of legality, a CA can contact YOU at a place of unemployment, UNLESS they know the employer does not allow this. A CA can speak to other people for the sole purpose of trying to find out how to contact you, but are not allowed to speak about details of a debt. However, they cannot "threaten" the employer for not disclosing. This is the true violation. You sister should ask her employer to inform the CA that they are not to be contacted again by this CA, as prescribed in the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act.
Out of curiousity, how does a collection agency "threaten" an employer? I mean what carrot is on the end of the stick. If a collection agency called looking for an employee, I don't see how the could "threaten" me. What happens if I don't capitulate?
This would be the true legal violation, as a CA cannot "threaten" a consumer, let alone an employer of the consumer... Unless....if the CA is collecting for the IRS perhaps, or similar agency.
I grasp the statutory language but, what I was asking was how would a collection agency threaten an employer? I mean to ask how would they do this in a practical sense?
In this case, they threatened that legal action would be pursued against the employer. We all know that this isn't possible. My sister's employer told them that she wasn't comfortable discussing this with them and hung up.
Remember that "legal action" can mean "anything action that isn't illegal." Even though everyone (e.g. the least sophisticated consumer) translates that to "law suit" the defense for that is for the CA to claim that it means "We will do everything within the law to collect the information." What harm could come from that? They are just stating how determined they are. Weasel words at their best.
Threat of legal or other action. Section 807(5) refers not only to a false threat of legal action, but also a false threat by a debt collector that he will report a debt to a credit bureau, assess a collection fee, or undertake any other action if the debt is not paid. A debt collector may also not misrepresent the imminence of such action. A debt collector's implication, as well as a direct statement, of planned legal action may be an unlawful deception. For example, reference to an attorney or to legal proceedings may mislead the debtor as to the likelihood or imminence of legal action. Bottom line if they say they say anything about taking legal action and don't you can take them to court.
The only times I have seen this to be possible were for cases regarding income tax or Social Security "fraud" or evasion. Legally they cannot even ask if your sister works there.......
Alright, I got more information. The letter, entitled "Informational Subpoena" is from a company called Colorado Capital Investments. It's appears to be a legitimate subpoena, with Supreme Court of the State of New York along the top and then CCI listed as the plaintiff and my sister as the defendant. It's in regards to a judgment against her that states that was ruled in CCI's favor, over a year ago. There is no docket number listed; however, there is a file number. At this time, I'm not sure how it was delivered to her employer; however, I believe it was mailed to them due to the way the paper was folded. My experience in law enforcement leads me to believe that any subpoena has to be hand delivered, with a notice of service filed. The subpoena demands that her employer furnish information to the plaintiff so that they can "locate" my sister to have her pay the judgment. My sister said that she has no idea who they are, nor who they represent and also that she doesn't owe any company that amount of money. The "subpoena" states that her employer has seven days to respond and I've told my sister to tell her boss to contact their attorney in regards to it, just in case. I guess in the meantime, I'll have my sister pull her credit reports to check for judgments and inaccuracies, then proceed from there. Further, wouldn't someone have to be notified about something being filed in court so that they could appear in their defense?
I found this in a quicky google search: http://www.courts.state.ny.us/ithaca/city/webpageJudgement.html Ouch! You might want to re-read the fine print on that before getting all ready to sue someone... OTOH, it might be your sister who needs to hire a lawyer to find out what she can do if the judgement is truly not her's.
My sister said that her employer spoke to them on the phone and said she never received it, which to me, means it was not send CMRRR; otherwise, it would be impossible for her to deny. I'm going to have her pull her free credit reports right now since she's never done it. I might send her to my lawyer that helped me beat Mitsubishi. Thanks for the help guys.
You need to have your sister change her address with her employer say to a p.o. box and any other info she doesn't want them to know. There next step will be to enact a sister state judgment. They would have to go to the court where she now lives and have her served the same as any other judgment.
So I decided to check online for the judgment, since it's considered a public record and was able to locate it. I read through it and the basis for the judgment was that she did not appear in court when they sent her the notice via, get this, REGULAR MAIL and that since the post office did not return it as undeliverable, they considered it served. It states as much in the deposition. How can this be possible? They have absolutely no proof whatsoever that she received it. The whole reason CMRRR exists is so that there is an evidence trail. This entire thing is already above my head, so I think I'll have her go to the lawyer I used. Hopefully, they can vacate the judgment based on the fact that there is no evidence that she was ever served the subpoena. This judgment was entered in March of 2006 and she just go the judgment paperwork in the mail.
You'd need to check what constitutes a valid service. This could be described as being valid in the state/county that it was being served...or not, in which case you'd have your grounds for vacation of the judgement.
If they already have a Judgment why are they bothering with an "Informational Subpoena"? Why not just file the Garnishment Order? Besides, the correct name of the document is "Information Subpoena" (no "al" on it). I suggest your sister contact the Courts in NY directly to determine if there really is a judgment against her, or if this CA is violating FDCPA by sending documents that appear to be legal process but in reality aren't. IF there is a judgment against her, and IF this document is really an Information Subpoena, and IF the employer is located in or has a nexus in NY, THEN the employer would be required to respond. IF NOT, then we have a rather serious FDCPA violation here.
Just a newbie chiming in, but from what I have read (mostly on budhibbs.com) is that there is a lot of bottom feeding scam collectors coming out of NY........... DH had one call his XW and threaten "legal action" against the man she told them she was no longer married to. It scared her so she called him and we went from there. We were well into the dispute game by this time and he kept repeating the mantra, "Put it in writing". Finally they hung up on him =0D. I tell you this as a warning about the scams that seem to be concentrated in NY.......
Unfortunately, I checked with the local town and there is a judgment against her on her credit report. I haven't seen the paperwork myself, but it says on there that someone named Jean (I think) accepted the mail. There is no Jean at the address and it's a private house. Further, I don't see how they can say that since their paperwork indicates that the subpoena was sent regular mail. How would they know who got it? The lawyer I used against Mitsu told my sister that she could attempt to settle, or file Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. With the experience I've had with him, he seems to have known what he was doing, but I just can't get past the fact that there is absolutely no proof that she was served, unless the actual paperwork from the courthouse says something different.
