I SENT A DV TO A CA ON 07/19/06 CMRRR TO WHICH I REC'D NO RESPONSE. I THEN SENT DV#2 ON 09/14/06 CMRRR STATING MY ITS IF THEY DIDN'T RESPOND WITHIN 15 DAYS TO WHICH I ALSO REC'D NO RESPONSE. IN THE MEANTIME I SENT LETTERS TO THE 3 CRA'S ASKING FOR VERIFICATION AND BOTH TIMES IT CAME BACK THAT THE CA VERIFIED WITH ALL 3 CRA'S. I KNOW THEY ARE NOW IN VIOLATION FOR NOT RESPONDING TO EITHER REQUEST AND VERIFYING WITH THE CRA'S BOTH TIMES BUT I'M NOT SURE HOW TO GO ABOUT FORCING THEM TO PAY THE FINES AND DELETING THE TL. WHAT IS MY NEXT STEP? LETTER TO THE MYSTATES ATTORNEY? ACTUALLY FILING A LAWSUIT? I WOULD REALLY LIKE TO COLLECT THE FINES AS IT WILL HELP ME PAY OFF SOME OTHER DEBTS FOR DELETION. I LIVE IN CT AND THE CA IS (OF COURSE) AFNI IN IL. ANY HELP ON MY NEXT STEP WOULD BE APPRECIATED!!!
If you want to collect, you have to sue. You can sue in a state court, including small claims court, in your state. Did your letters indicate you dispute the debt? Are your reports marked "consumer disputes"? What response to your suit are they likely to have? Is the debt still within SOL? Is the amount in collection below statutory damages for FDCPA violations? Does CT require a license to collect, and do they have one? Has this debt collector been sanctioned for collection activity in the state of CT? Do you have any idea whether the debt is possibly legitimate, or even your debt, whether still owed or not?
Yes the letters indicated I disputed the debt and my reports are marked "consumer disputes". I don't know what respnse they might have. I am not sure of the exact date but I am sure it is passed the 6yr CT SOL. It is only a small amount $127 but I initially only wanted it deleted. CT does require a license and they are listed. I don't know if they have been sanctioned for collection activity in CT. The original debt was Sprint which I have not had since at least 09/00 since that is when I switched to Nextel. I know I should have paid the debt but when I obtained my CR in July and started trying to clean it up that was the first I realized it was on there. Thank you Ontrack for your help!
The other key factor is if your dispute and request for validation was within 30 days of their first contact letter to you. If so, under FDCPA they were supposed to suspend collection activity, including verifying to the CRAs, until they validated, since with your dispute they could not assume the debt was valid. If they had not contacted you, but your validation request was in response to finding their account on your reports, then it would also be timely.
My validation request was in response to finding their account on my reports, up until then I had never been contacted by them. I'm not quite sure what you mean by timely in that situation.
By "timely" I mean within 30 days of receiving their first letter that notifies you of your rights to dispute and request validation, as required by FDCPA. If you never received any such notification, or if you sent your request within 30 days of receiving their notification to you of your dispute rights, then your request is by definition "timely", and on receiving your dispute, they should no longer consider the debt valid, and suspend collection activity, including reporting to CRAs, verifying CRA disputes, or even suing, until they obtain and send validation.
