Yes, you can sue overly aggressive debt collectors if they violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Furthermore, a bankruptcy court will pursue a creditor who ignores the automatic stay or bankruptcy discharge and continues to harass a debtor.
Consider debt collection and its consequences in several phases before, during and after bankruptcy proceedings.
- Before you initiate a bankruptcy, if you have been falling behind on credit card payments or have left other debts such as medical bills unpaid, you may receive phone calls and letters from your creditors. You may have already experienced overly aggressive debt collection practices, including repetitive, persistent phone calls involving verbal harassment.
- Once you retain a lawyer and begin the bankruptcy process, debt relief is just around the corner. We advise your clients who stop making credit card payments at this point to ignore debt collectors and focus their energies on getting their bankruptcies filed. Turn your phone off, screen callers, do not engage in dialog with creditors — and meanwhile, do not lose any sleep. Rather, get your bankruptcy underway.
- Once you file bankruptcy, the automatic stay goes into effect. This provides even stronger legal protections for a debtor. Debt collectors are prohibited from initiating or continuing lawsuits against you or seeking judgments in connection with your debts from that point on.
- The final step in your bankruptcy is when you receive confirmation from the court that your debts have been discharged. This makes permanent the provisions of the automatic stay: The creditors cannot seek to collect those debts ever again.
What if Your Creditors or Their Designated Debt Collectors Violate Rules of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) or Ignore Your Bankruptcy?
There are two types of actions you can take against a creditor or debt collector who violates rules of debt collection, depending on whether harassment takes place before or after your bankruptcy filing.
If you are preparing to file bankruptcy but have not yet filed, and debt collectors violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), you may initiate a civil lawsuit to get them to stop and perhaps pay you damages. If they continue to harass you after your bankruptcy has been filed, you may report this to the bankruptcy court, and the court is likely to take action against them for violating the automatic stay.
Even before you initiate bankruptcy proceedings, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) specifically bars creditors from certain actions, such as calling you before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., discussing your debt with your employer or one of your co-workers, discussing your debt with anyone other than your spouse, harassing or abusing you and making false threats.
Perhaps debt collectors used racial slurs or other harassing insults when they called seeking to collect on your debts. An occasional call or letter after the creditor or debt collector has been notified of your bankruptcy is most likely not reason enough to file a lawsuit against the creditor or debt collector. However, ongoing, intentional, repeated harassment and abuse may provide the evidence you need to get a judgment against the creditor or debt collector.
Debt collectors who persist in their tactics after a bankruptcy has been filed or discharged could face serious penalties from the bankruptcy court, including responsibility for your legal fees.
To explore the option of suing an aggressive debt collector for violating the FDCPA or reporting a creditor to the court for ignoring your bankruptcy filing or discharge, document all letters, phone calls or reports of contact with your employer or neighbors. Schedule a free initial consultation with P.R. Smith Law Group P.A. to discuss the abuses. An attorney will advise you of whether you likely have a viable case and tell you how to get a lawsuit started.
Creditor Harassment? We Can Help You Sue Debt Collectors · Consumer Protection Attorney · Free Initial Consultation at P.R. Smith Law Group, P.A.
For more information on how to sue an overly aggressive debt collector or to speak with an attorney about your rights, contact the P.R. Smith Law Group to schedule a free initial consultation. Call 888-682-5251 toll free to make an appointment at our Tampa bankruptcy law offices or one of our other Florida offices.
We are a debt relief agency. We help people file for bankruptcy relief under the Bankruptcy Code.
