Debt Management

The Collection Agency Pays Your Attorney’s Fees in a Debt Collection Harassment Case

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) as been around for almost 35 years. The FDCPA is a federal law that applies to every state. In other words, everyone is protected by the FDCPA. The FDCPA is essentially a laundry list of what debt collects can and cannot do while collecting a debt, as well as things debt collectors must do while collecting a debt.

Most consumers harassed by debt collectors probably think it’s impractical to hire a lawyer to fight a collection agency. If a consumer cannot afford to pay their bills, then how would a consumer have money to hire a lawyer to fight a collection agency. However, consumers harassed by debt collectors do not have to pay attorney’s fees and costs. The collection agency pays your attorney’s fees and costs. A debt collector who fails to comply with any provision of the FDCPA is liable for any actual damages sustained, punitive damages, and statutory damages up to $1,000.00. The FDCPA has a fee-shift provision. This means, the collection agency pays your attorney’s fees and costs.

Federal Courts have long recognized the importance of the fee-shift provision of the FDCPA, as well as the public policies behind it. Awarding attorney’s fees and costs in debt collection harassment cases is mandatory. “The FDCPA was enacted to eliminate abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors, to insure those debt collectors who refrain from using abusive debt collection practices are not competitively disadvantaged, and to promote consistent State action to protect consumers against debt collection abuses. Congress found such abuses by debt collectors to be serious and widespread.” Foti v. NCO Financial Systems, Inc., 424 F.Supp.2d 643, 653 (S.D.N.Y. 2006) citing 15 U.S.C. ยง 1692(e) and Russell v. Equifax A.R.S., 74 F.3d 30, 33 (2d Cir.1996).

Accordingly, “[T]he purpose of the statutory fee award is to benefit the plaintiff by allowing the plaintiff to obtain counsel in order to pursue redress for relatively small claims.” Majcher v. Laurel Motors, Inc., 287 Ill.App.3d 719, 680 N.E.2d 416 (Ill. Ct. App. 1997); See also Ford Motor Co. v. Mayes, 575 S.W.2d 480, 488 (Ky. Ct. App. 1978). The purpose of the fee-shift provision under the FDCPA is not only to allow, but also to encourage, consumers to vindicate their rights without having to worry about the need to pay for their attorney’s fees and costs. The attorney’s-fees provision is in place to remove the difficulty of obtaining counsel in pursuing claims which are relatively small compared to the potential legal costs. Therefore, even if you are having trouble paying your bills, if a collection agency violates the law, then the collection agency pays your attorney’s fees and costs.

If a collection agency has harassed you over a debt or need to have Chicago debt settlement, whether they called you excessively, threatened you, called you at work despite knowing you cannot receive these type of calls at work, disclosed your debt to a third party, tried to collect a debt from you that you did not owe, or left you a voicemail message without the proper disclosures, contact Agruss Law Firm, LLC, for a free case evaluation on debt collection harassment. Founding attorney, Michael Agruss, has settled over 1,500 debt collection harassment cases. Now, Agruss Law Firm, LLC, wants to help you, too.

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Monday, May 7th, 2012 Debt Management Comments Off

Debt Management Companies Assign

Most of the debt management companies assign a counsellor who provides tailor made solutions depending upon your present financial situation. The counsellor will explain the options that you have along with the advantages and disadvantages of each of these options. Most of the reputed debt management companies offer free advice to their prospective customers so that they can discuss their problem with them. In this way, you can get a direction that you can follow once you make up your mind for finally managing your debts.

When you have plans to zero in on a professional debt management company, you can use the internet for this purpose. Most of the companies have their own website where they list their contact information and the various services that are offered by them. The counsellor at the debt management company may ask you few straight questions such as your monthly income, expenditure and how you came to such a situation where you are reeling under these huge debts. Be prepared to answer such questions to the counsellor. If you feel that you are not being treated well by the company where in they are not attending to you and your financial needs, you can move onto the next company to seek the advice.

A debt management company negotiates with all your lenders to whom you owe money. They basically try to reduce the high rate of interest so as to ease your burden. Aside from this, they work with your creditors to extend the repayment period and terms. Depending upon the outcome, sometimes, all your debts are rolled into one monthly payment at a much lower rate of interest. On the whole you make one monthly payment to the debt company that in turns pays to all your creditors by acting on your behalf. Sometimes, a new consolidation loan is used for repaying all your debts in one go and you just have to make one monthly payments towards this new consolidation loan at much lower interest rate. This can be much more convenient for you and your creditors.

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Friday, April 20th, 2012 Debt Management Comments Off

Money Advance and Debt Management

It is actually very simple to fall prey of fast cash loan companies. Acquiring a financial loan from them primarily demands little while before the computer. It is usually useful occasionally especially if funds are severely important and you have nowhere to go. But, it is not almost always commendable to obtain a money advance whenever you still have outstanding personal loans from different lenders. The reason is easy and obvious. Unless you resolve first your existing debts, it will pile up at some point and you will have trouble handling and paying them all. The most severe circumstance to occur is the fact that once you get a borrowing arrangement to repay another loan. It will likely be a never-ending circuit as being the circumstance for many of us nowadays.

There are certain explanations why many go into financial debt for instance revenue losses on account of retrenchment, illness and have you. It isn’t just as a result of financial mismanagement, which is typically the assumption. At this point, if you’re ever with big debts through quick cash loans, one option would be to consolidate them. In fact, quite a lot are encouraging debtors to get into debt consolidation loan the soonest possible time to counteract debts and interest rates from multiplying faster than usual. However, you ought to you should never instantly get into it without having prior learning the particulars of debt management plan. Teaching yourself is still the best defense against fly-by-night debt management companies.

Diving further into debt management plan, it’s actually a procedure in which you like freeze the interest from mounting up through getting a brand new loan to cover several loans at a more affordable monthly amortization. Along with this, debt settlement organizations will make a deal with your loaning agencies to get an budget friendly rate per month. Furthermore, debt consolidation ought to assist you to solve your personal debt challenges without to burden you with additional charges and bigger rates of interest. This is the recommended debt management plan.

The initial step your debt company will conduct will be to quantify your ability to repay. This means, they want to know your available income, and that is your pay subtracting all expenses. By this, they would be able to have a clue how much is allocated for a particular credit companies. From that point, they’re able to bargain with your financial institutions. What if they fall short? This is an excellent question because your agency must have the skills to make things work. The rationale they are available is that they will mediate between the clients and their creditors.

One very good point concerning debt consolidation, though, is basically that you will get rid of many phone calls from the lending firms. They’re going to quit tormenting you with correspondence where they demand you the shipping bills.

Even so, going through the debt debt consolidation is certainly not very simple. The good thing to do about it is to consult with a financial advisor. Almost all the debt support businesses offer free counsel. Just grab them. You should know no matter whether entering into debt consolidation would minimize the interest rate you’re paying because, otherwise, it is going to wipe out the objective of the plan.

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Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 Debt Management Comments Off