OK as I travel to my sales calls all through Ohio you have lots of time to think about things. FDCPA has been on my mind alot lately. According to everything I have been researching I find out that no matter how many violations you get on a CA they are only gonna be hit with a $1,000 statutory damages. IF I am a CA and I am trying to collect debts from say 20,000 people and I know that some of them a few will dispute the debt and ask for validation most will buckle under my pressure and calls and pay up the few that do go after me (us folks on the Creditnet) if I am a CA I could care less about us WHY cause no matter how much I harrass you, call you send you collection letters and never valadate even if you do sue worst case is I will have to pay 1,000 plus court costs. Not bad if I am trying to collect say 10,000 in credit card debt that you owe. So as I said lots of time to think as I drive is there any law that says let say a CA that trying to collect from you has emm 5 FCRA violations which you can collect damages for each one of them and lets say no validation from the CA after you send them the CMRRR letter requesting validation and you get 4 collection letters and 5 phone calls there is 9 violations but if you sue the most you can get is $1,000. Whats to say and can you file like 9 Federal Law suits one for each violation that way you can collect 1,000 for each violation? Food for thought for all the legal people here.
Hi Lsmith, Know how ya feel. But it's not quite that easy on em. First, Negligence comes in 2 forms. Simple Negligence, and "willful" negligence. If one can prove the neg. was willful, it opens the door to HUUUGE "punitive" damage awards. Among those things to be considered are at § 813. Civil liability [15 USC 1692k] (b) (1). Special provision is made in consumer protection law to include reasonable atty fees as an extra component of the action. Those can be quite substantial. The CA would have to pay that too, if you prevail. One case I'm helping with appears to be settling as follows: To the consumer: $3,000 To the atty. staff: $40,000 Then there's the money the adversary has to pay THEIR atty's to fight the action. Probably another $20,000 - $40,000. So you see, a CA would be wise to follow the law. .
Thanks Butch as I said was just thinking having problems with CPS, they acquired Mercury Finance and say I owe them 8,000 on a repo they have a in house collection dept and have been dunning me with phone calls letters and have never validated the debt have them on at least 6 FCRA violations pulling my EX report twice in a two month period hards and one on EQ as well never reported the debt as in dispute with the CRA yet validated the debt and have gotten 12 collection calls and 6 collection letters from them ..their in house " lawyer" told me on the phone that hey most you can get under FDCPA violations no matter how much we have done is 1,000 plus court costs so go on when we sue you will get a judgment for 8000 and that will go on your Credit Report so YOU LOSE. I am getting ready to file on them in Federal Court and see if I can get them to mark the account Paid in full for a dismissal of the Suit.
Did you guy's not see this thread? http://consumers.creditnet.com/straighttalk/board/showthread.php?s=&threadid=56741 .
