A few posts back (please see our August 6 entry), we discussed federal legislation entitled the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which we noted “serves as a strong warning to unethical debt collectors.”

Indeed it does, and for the reasons we stated in that post. As we additionally pointed out therein, a harassed consumer desperately seeking relief from an over-the-top collector can augment the assistance provided for under the FDCPA by securing an experienced debt relief attorney. The federal law contemplates that, with internal references to legal representation and its efficacy in promoting legislative intent under the law.

A classic real-life example of employing the FDCPA and additionally securing legal help to apply it against an abusive collection company was recently supplied in a media article denoting one man’s struggles with – and ultimate success against – just such an unsavory actor.

Although the story is out of Illinois, it commands easy relevance across the country, including in Mississippi. We supply a summary sketch of its details here.

For starters, the collection company got it all wrong, making frequent calls to a consumer who quite clearly was wrongly identified as a debt target.

He let the company know that by invoking the FDCPA in a certified letter he sent it, demanding that it cease and desist in future efforts to harass him. He also duly chronicled in notes all the entity’s subsequent contacts with him.

There were many of those, and the consumer ultimately made the decision to hire a law firm to intercede. The firm did just that, by filing a federal lawsuit.

That is what it sometimes takes to get an aggressive and unprincipled debt collector to back off and act lawfully. In the man’s case, the firm settled.

Unsurprisingly, aggressive legal action brought by a proven attorney and based on strong factual support can yield a result.

Source: credit.com, “How one man got even with a debt collector … in court,” Bob Sullivan, Aug. 27, 2014

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