Hi all! I received a call from a law firm today at work. The guy made threats of filing judgement and serving me at work if I didnt pay them. Here is the info for this matter: CA-Portfolio Recovery ASS. LLC. OC-MNBA The lawyer says that he has been assigned this by Portfolio. I would imagine that the reason they are "calling" me is Experian shows a CO date of July02. In Texas that would make the SOL come due in July. Let me add this. I quit paying MNBA in April01. They took over a year to finally CO and I never made a payment during that time. Since this is my first contact with this firm, should I request DV immediately? I would like to CRRR today if at all possible so any advice would be great. Thanks!
A lawyer called you? How do you know? What was said? Did this individual claim to be an attorney?? If this is the first contact, then they have *five* days to send a letter, no more. Tell them your employer does not allow you to accept personal telephone calls at work. Do you have the ability to record any conversation on your work telephone? If not, memorialize any conversation. The SOL is calculated from the DOLA (date of last activity), not the charge-off date.
SOL would be based on when the last charge or payment was made. Their goal might have been to panic you into agreeing to a "payment plan", or making a payment by phone, so they could claim you reaffirmed the debt and reset the SOL. Threatening to sue if they knew it was past SOL would be a violation of FDCPA for threatening to take an action they could not legally take. Their threat to serve you at work, if they had your home address, would appear to be a threat to disclose to 3rd parties, and to embarass you in order to collect, again a violation of FDCPA. If you are in Texas, and you DV them, they have 30 days to provide it, or they violate Texas consumer protection laws. Did the caller identify himself as an attorney? Licensed in what state? You might find this helpfull: http://www.pennlawyer.com/fdcpa.htm
You can find examples of their tactics on: http://www.ripoffreport.com/ This article mentions them: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7279844/did/8733453/ Also, they appear to be a BBB member: http://www.bbb.org/
Thank you guys for the advice..it is much appreciated. Please give me your thoughts on this: This person also left a voicemail. Now, this vociemail is common to 4 people(myself included) and the greeting states that fact. This guy left a message for me that goes:" Mr.(my name), this is(his name) with the law office of Jay Taylor and associates. We have an important legal matter to discuss with you that requires your immediate response." Under these circumstances, could that be considered an attempt to disclose to 3rd parties? He was given information in the greeting that states 3 other people besides myself could listen to the message. What are your thoughts on this?
At work or at home? Was the voicemail left prior or after he was informed that your employer didn't allow you to receive personal telephone calls? The fact that this debt is apparently past the SOL that voicemail is *definitely* worth saving for the future.
This occured at work. He placed the called late Wed afternoon and left that message. He called yesterday and I talked to him and told him my employer does not allow us to handle non-emergency calls on company time. Thanks for the advice!
