I was hoping any former (or current) experienced collectors could give me their point of view here. If you, as a collector, employed an attorney to do the collections for you, and the attorney violated the FDCPA a bunch of times, would you be at all intimidated by a threatening letter from the debtor claiming that YOU were responsible for what your attorney did? If not, please explain why. thanks. edited because I did not mean for that to sound so offensive!!
i'm not a collector, but I wouldn't be intimidated, even though I can be held liable. It would depend on what violations and what proof and if i felt you wre actually going to go through with it. most people who send ITS don't follow through (from what i hear is most of the letters they get), the collectors ignore the letters until you actually file.
thanks a lot jenz. anyone else agree? Will sending an ITS outlining all violations get laughed at unless I acutally file? I just shudder at the thought of actually filing.
Attorneys believe their $hit doesn't stink. A common Law School joke is: "What's the difference between God and an Attorney? God is not an Attorney." Attorneys are not moved by threats - they are so used to making them that having one made TO them just won't work. A summons might work better, since attorneys are "Debt Collectors" under FDCPA according to the FTC. Accordingly, since the violation was by the attirney, the attorney is separately on the hook under FDCPA. Besides, with the Attorney violating the law you not only have the Courts to grant a judgement, you have the Bar Association Ethics Committee (for what THAT's worth) to complain to.
Re: Re: ? for former collectors...(Flying?) What about threatening a Collection Agency for what the attorney did? You were a collector....did you ever use an attorney, and if so, did you ever feel like you could be held liable for the violations they committed? I want to go after the CA because they're the ones on my reports, but the attorney is the only one who has made violations. btw, Flying, you probably read my last post before I edited it (sorry!) I originally wrote collection attorney, but i meant collection agency. thanks so much for your views.
Re: Re: Re: ? for former collectors...(Flying?) You can't go after the CA for the attorney's infractions unless the attorney is an employee of the CA working under the Master-Servant doctrine, which is very rare.
So, do you believe they can be held liable? (or did you mean even IF they could be held liable) their attorney has sent 4 collection attempts without validating, the CA listed this on my reports without ever contacting me directly, AND after I'd requested validation from the attorneys within the first 30 days. (I was too stupid to send a validation demand to the CA directly.)
Re: Re: Re: Re: ? for former collectors...(Flying?) THANK YOU. This is the answer I've been feverishly looking for. The CA is Sherman Acquisitions, and the 'attorneys' are a huge firm here in my home state who seem to do nothing but collect debts. do i have any hope that this master-servant doctrine is in effect? how would i find out? THANK YOU AGAIN!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ? for former collectors...(Flying?) CA is Sherman? I bet you can sue them for re-aging. Check your CRA files, they re-age everything. If the attorney's name isn't Scott Silver in New York, he's not under Master-Servant doctrine.
