I came across this article, today: Collections & Credit Risk - Letter: Agency Owner Frustrated By "Unfounded" Lawsuit - PaymentsSource Article The author, who owns a collection agency, is complaining that she was slapped with an FDCPA law suit that she feels is unfounded. She is further upset that her lawyer advises that she just pay them to go away because a law suit would cost $10K to defend. (Of course, if she won, she could seek to recover that). While I don't support malicious or baseless lawsuits (even against collection agencies), I think her letter has to fall into the whining category. As someone who was in the biz for quite a while before starting her agency, she should know that law suits are a tool used by collectors and collectees alike. To cry foul when slapped with a law suit seems a bit naive. In her article, shy mentions that the collection agency only has to "send in a code" to change a debtor's credit report. On the other hand, a regular person must jump through all sorts of hoops (including filing law suits) to get something corrected. Further, the FDCPA (which was written with the input of collection agencies) provides only one tool for recourse against a collection agency and that's the law suit. I would imagine that consumers would rather not have to file a law suit when they feel they've been wronged by a collection agency, but that's not an option. They can only file a law suit. So, my feeling is if that's the playing field you want to play in, don't come whining if you happen to get hit by the ball.
