Bottom line...the new rules that the CFPB comes up with need to be FAIR to BOTH the debt collector and the consumer. While there are collection agencies that abuse consumers and the system, and need to be dealt with, most agencies are simply trying to help collect monies due their clients from consumers who have chosen not to pay. There could be a variety of reasons that they've chosen not to pay; both legit and not legit.
Currently, the playing field favors consumers; more specifically 'consumer attorneys'. Collection agencies can get sued for leaving a message for a consumer WITHOUT disclosing that they owe a debt because uninformed judges have arbitrarily decided that a message that does not disclose any information about a debt is a communication. This completely contradicts current FDCPA law, however, that specifically states that a 'communication' means directly conveying information regarding a debt.
They can also get sued by leaving a 'Foti' message, should that message be overheard by a 3rd party. 'Foti' is NOT law, but rather another judge's uneducated (on FDCPA) opinion / ruling that basically states that 'messages need to give complete information about a consumer debt and that the call is from a collection agency, after allowing unrelated 3rd parties the opportunity to step away from the message retrieval device. This sounds silly, but it's true.
Predatory consumer attorneys use this lack of definition in the law to perform 'Sue and Settle' techniques on collection agencies that make call attempts in one of the above stated procedures; agencies can get sued for trying to contact debtors by both methods.
What's worse, and I personally know consumers that this has happened to, is that these 'supposed' consumer attorneys aren't really acting on behalf of the consumers that they represent. They use these consumers simply as a 'vehicle' to sue an agency where their whole goal is to get thousands of SETTLEMENT dollars in attorney fees as they can while only providing the alleged 'wronged' consumer several hundreds of dollars. They use this 'SUE & SETTLE' business model as a way of extorting money from agencies because they know that an agency would have to spend $30-50K to defend themselves. And, while the agency may be successful in defending themselves, many don't have the monies to spend defending themselves knowing that they cannot recoup these fees & costs from the consumer attorney that filed the frivolous lawsuit in the first place.
Furthermore, somewhere along the way, another uninformed judge made a ruling (NOT LAW) stating that agencies can be sued under TCPA by attempting to contact a consumer about their debt by an auto-dialer calling the consumer's cell phone.
Several things are wrong with this. First, if you read the TCPA in it's entirety, it was meant to stop TELEPHONE SOLICITORS (people trying to sell consumers something), that didn't have any prior relationship with the consumer. Collection agencies are not trying to sell anything. Collection agencies, via BA Agreements, act as an extension of the business office for those creditors that DO HAVE A PRIOR RELATIONSHIP with consumers. As such, the TCPA does not apply. However, judges that are ignorant on the law make their opinion into a ruling which opens the doors for these predator attorneys to use their 'Sue & Settle' techniques.
In conclusion, the CFPB needs to specifically define HOW collection agencies can lawfully contact, and work with, those consumers that owe their clients money. The CFPB needs to 'throw out' ignorant rulings by judges who do not understand the law.
The laws have to be equal on both sides. If not, the CFPB will simply provide consumers a legal avenue to steal from those businesses that they do credit business with by not paying their bills and, subsequently, these businesses not being able to hire debt collectors to help them get the money that they're owed.
mslade
1
Bottom line...the new rules that the CFPB comes up with need to be FAIR to BOTH the debt collector and the consumer. While there are collection agencies that abuse consumers and the system, and need to be dealt with, most agencies are simply trying to help collect monies due their clients from consumers who have chosen not to pay. There could be a variety of reasons that they've chosen not to pay; both legit and not legit. Currently, the playing field favors consumers; more specifically 'consumer attorneys'. Collection agencies can get sued for leaving a message for a consumer WITHOUT disclosing that they owe a debt because uninformed judges have arbitrarily decided that a message that does not disclose any information about a debt is a communication. This completely contradicts current FDCPA law, however, that specifically states that a 'communication' means directly conveying information regarding a debt. They can also get sued by leaving a 'Foti' message, should that message be overheard by a 3rd party. 'Foti' is NOT law, but rather another judge's uneducated (on FDCPA) opinion / ruling that basically states that 'messages need to give complete information about a consumer debt and that the call is from a collection agency, after allowing unrelated 3rd parties the opportunity to step away from the message retrieval device. This sounds silly, but it's true. Predatory consumer attorneys use this lack of definition in the law to perform 'Sue and Settle' techniques on collection agencies that make call attempts in one of the above stated procedures; agencies can get sued for trying to contact debtors by both methods. What's worse, and I personally know consumers that this has happened to, is that these 'supposed' consumer attorneys aren't really acting on behalf of the consumers that they represent. They use these consumers simply as a 'vehicle' to sue an agency where their whole goal is to get thousands of SETTLEMENT dollars in attorney fees as they can while only providing the alleged 'wronged' consumer several hundreds of dollars. They use this 'SUE & SETTLE' business model as a way of extorting money from agencies because they know that an agency would have to spend $30-50K to defend themselves. And, while the agency may be successful in defending themselves, many don't have the monies to spend defending themselves knowing that they cannot recoup these fees & costs from the consumer attorney that filed the frivolous lawsuit in the first place. Furthermore, somewhere along the way, another uninformed judge made a ruling (NOT LAW) stating that agencies can be sued under TCPA by attempting to contact a consumer about their debt by an auto-dialer calling the consumer's cell phone. Several things are wrong with this. First, if you read the TCPA in it's entirety, it was meant to stop TELEPHONE SOLICITORS (people trying to sell consumers something), that didn't have any prior relationship with the consumer. Collection agencies are not trying to sell anything. Collection agencies, via BA Agreements, act as an extension of the business office for those creditors that DO HAVE A PRIOR RELATIONSHIP with consumers. As such, the TCPA does not apply. However, judges that are ignorant on the law make their opinion into a ruling which opens the doors for these predator attorneys to use their 'Sue & Settle' techniques. In conclusion, the CFPB needs to specifically define HOW collection agencies can lawfully contact, and work with, those consumers that owe their clients money. The CFPB needs to 'throw out' ignorant rulings by judges who do not understand the law. The laws have to be equal on both sides. If not, the CFPB will simply provide consumers a legal avenue to steal from those businesses that they do credit business with by not paying their bills and, subsequently, these businesses not being able to hire debt collectors to help them get the money that they're owed.
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