Back in March, my husband was involved in an accident and the trooper ticketed him. We were insured with Florida minimum insurance requirements and our insurance paid the other party for whatever we were insured for, but now this 'subrogation' company is calling us and telling us that we owe for something else. (Apparently, the other driver's passenger's medical bills of $10,000.) They call my house 2-3 times a week, and always when my husband is at work and I always tell them that he doesn't get in until after 5. They tell me they're only there until 5, and then they continue to call back in the middle of the day anyway. One of the times they called, when I answered the phone, the 'rep'(?) informed "this is so-and-so calling about his license." "What about his license?" I asked. "It's about the accident he was in back in March," she replied. "Well are you calling about the accident or his license?" I asked. "Both. We're trying to recover money and under the Financial Responsibility Law we can have his license suspended." I've called countless attorneys to find out about this, and none of them ever call back. So I called the state insurance commissioner, and asked them if these people could have my husband's license suspended, and they didn't know. I called the DMV and they told me that they would have to get a judgment first, before they can suspend my husband's license. Then last week, another 'rep' from this company called, again during the afternoon, and asked to speak to my husband, and again, I told him that my husband doesn't get home until after 5. He asked if he could get a hold of my husband in the morning before he leaves for work. I told him, "He leaves at 5:30 am." That's when this guy started to 'stutter' at me... "Wait.. is he driving to work?" The guy asked. "How is that any of your business?" I responded. He said, "The state is trying to get his license." I told him that the DMV assured me that they would not suspend my husband's license without a judgment, but... I was pretty annoyed with this company, so... I started researching this company, and found some horrific stories about them, and I also found stories that appear to be posted by 'shills.' It's hard to tell. So I started researching more, and came across the Florida Financial Law, and it doesn't make any sense. It tells the 'plaintiff,' to file for a judgment, and then once they have it to send it to them, but then it says this... "You can obtain the insurance details for property damage coverage from us by providing a written request along with a copy of the crash report and file for the damages with their insurance company. The judgment will be enforced for injuries. While normally the law provides us authority to suspend a license of an uninsured party only for 3 years, in the case we have a judgment, we have the authority to suspend licenses, tags and registrations for a period of 20 years or until the judgment is satisfied." This makes no sense to me at all. So at this point, we're not even sure where to turn. We did have insurance. We were not 'uninsured.' We just weren't covered for something that the law doesn't require us to be covered for... We just got another call from someone at the subrogation company today who once again told me that 'the DMV is petitioning to suspend (my husbands') license." I advised him that I was tired of these 'threats,' regarding my husband's license being suspended because as far as we are concerned, the accident was her fault as she was the one who turned into and traveled in a center turn lane, when she clearly had no intention of turning onto the street that my husband was crossing when she hit him at a least 30 miles per hour because she hit him hard enough to spin our Jeep 180 degrees back around to face the parking lot he had just pulled out of. And that he had to take us to court to get a judgment against us before the state would suspend my husband's license. He told me, "It doesn't work that way m'aam.' He advised me that "it is your husband's fault because he didn't have uninsured motorists coverage.' And then told me that the DMV had 'already petitioned to have my husband's license suspended.' I asked him if he had a 'copy' of this so-called 'petition' and he said no. So I asked him how he knew it had been filed, and he told me it was filed on September 16. I told him, again, that I am getting sick of these 'threats,' that I know he has to take my husband to court to get a judgement before the state will suspend his license and he told me, "No, it doesn't work that way m'amm." Who regulates these scumbags? Because this is absolutely ridiculous. I'm tired of these 'threats.' If this was a collection company, which seems to be exactly what they are trying to operate as, they would be in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, but they seem to 'act' like bill collectors, without actually 'being' bill collectors, so they don't have to comply with collection laws. In the meantime, I can't find a phone number to call the DMV to ask them if they have filed any 'petition,' but the last time I spoke to them, they assured me that they would not suspend my husband's license without a judgement and that we would be notified of any court proceedings regarding said judgement. I want this company to stop threatening us and harassing us. What can I do? I posted about this situation on a legal forum, and was advised there that if the subrogation company 'bought' the debt and is now 'the original creditor,' that they don't have to comply with the FDCPA. I've also read that subrogation companies are not 'debt collectors,' and therefore are not subject to the FDCPA. Yet, I did a search on the forums here, and found a thread in which a member looked up several of them and found that they were debt collectors... So I'm lost. The name of this subrogation company is Bell Corp LLC and here is their website (I need to make 6 more posts before I can post the link to their website.)
Ok... quick update- I did a bit more research and did discover that they are indeed a 'collection agency.' I'll post the link to their site once I get my post count up high enough. (5 more to go)
In the meantime... Can anyone recommend a course of action? Should I first send a debt validation letter and then proceed to go after them for their FDCPA violations, or should I reverse that, or should I just do both at the same time. Logic tells me that even if I win a suit against them for the FDCPA violations, that it won't 'erase' any debt we would 'owe' to them, so I should probably at least start working on getting the debt validated, but then... the question is, do I WANT to force it into the courts to make the courts determine that I should be responsible for this debt, or should I just negotiate it down and avoid that possible losing case?
