I have my doubts you will get anywhere with that idea. It is not the Attorney General's job to do your research for you or to act for you in any way. The attorney general of any and all states have the job of defending the state, providing legal opinions to the courts and to the legislative bodies and enforcing the laws of the state. If you have a cause of action or complaint which allows for right of prosecution by private attorney general then you will have to pursue it without help from the state. If you have a complaint where you can prove that someone violated a state law and you were damaged by their action then the AG might take action. If so you won't be likely to get anything other than maybe relief from their action and if you lost money you might be able to get that back. Attorney Generals are great at doing their job in most cases but they are not there to help the public in most instances. They are there to defend or prosecute the interests of the state.
Just wanted to post my follow up on E-mailing the attorney general's office and sadly, Bill's predictions were correct. They told me they cannot provide legal advice to the general public, and requested that I submit a consumer complaint so they can "properly evaluate this matter," if I choose to do so. I don't anticipate pursuing this issue through that venue, however. And Bill, no need to be snarky. I don't expect others to do the "dirty work" for me, never did and never will. On the other hand, I do appreciate and welcome helpful nudges and clues to point me in the right direction and concluded I had nothing to lose by asking for advice considering Pennsylvania has, for example, laws in place which hold Original Creditors to the same standards as Collection Agencies (i.e. The Fair Credit Extension Uniformity Act) and that our state tends to be very consumer-friendly when it comes to protecting the public. However, in this case I concede that I erred in asking the attorney general's office for advice by virtue of the fact that they're unable to give such advice in the first place. Anyway, lesson learned. Time to move on. I'm now back to looking for those elusive case precedents which would be "the smoking gun" in an FDCPA suit. Again, finding them is half the battle. Reaching conclusions which aren't bizarre stretches of the conclusions reached by the courts is the other half.
Snarky? You simply would not believe what so many people expect you to do for free for them and even get all bent out of shape when you won't do it. Part of that attitude stems from the fact that they simply have no idea how much work is going to be involved to start off with. They seem to think that just because you are well informed it should be little more than a snap of the fingers for those who know how to do all that stuff. I deal with that attitude all the time. But that isn't even the worst of it. I get people who have been listening to the PNJ theories about HJR 149, the Builderbergers, the Federal Reserve, modern money mechanics, A4V, 1099-OID, how banks can't loan you their credit and since there isn't any money they didn't loan you anything, how you created the money out of thin air to buy your home or that candy bar, and last but certainly not least, how the bank is the debtor and you are the creditor. And all of that is just the tip of the iceberg. It just keeps on getting nuttier and nuttier. But on to how to find the stuff you need to address your problems. Have you gone through all of the stuff in my Google Doc's links below? That's just for starters. Have you tried Google Scholar? How about Justia.com? Have you tried that? How about Wikipedia? How about Cornell University Law Library? Or even your local law library? If you have missed any of the above then you have a real good place to start.
I know exactly what you mean. Were I in your shoes, I'd probably be a bit terse myself. Fortunately, I'm not one of those people, but I can certainly empathize with your experiences as I too have had the misfortune of helping some very thankless people throughout my life. I'm sorry to hear you've encountered more than your fair share of them. I'm sure we could go on and on about the plight of humanity and the folly of the entitlement mentality, but that'll quickly become a subject onto itself. As a matter of fact, I did happen to find a case on Google which may shed some light on the issue we've been discussing. What's really surprising is this case was heard in my very own state of Pennsylvania. I'll post it in its own thread so we can continue discussion there.
Or... not. Since I can't post links to Google Docs until I have 25 posts... And I'd rather not C&P a loooooooong legal text into a forum post. Unless, of course, that's ok with everyone and you don't mind a lengthy read.
