Collection Agencies And District Attorneys

Last year, the New York Times and Boston Globe reported on the disturbing relationships between local district attorneys and debt collection agencies—and this year, some district attorneys are canceling their contracts with these debt collectors. The debt collection agencies, who went after various accounts for municipalities, frequently forcing people to enroll in expensive classes to clear their records with the “town.” The debt collectors printed their threatening letters on the municipalities’ letterhead. The Boston Globe recently ran a follow-up story revealing that at least six DAs in Massachusetts had either ended or suspended their contracts with the collection agencies they had contracted with. Another troubling part of the pairing between DA offices and collection agencies is that no actual investigation is done into whether a check was intentionally fraudulent, or bounced accidentally. The DA offices wholesaled all their “bad check” cases out to the debt collectors, who then collected steep fees for fake financial planning classes. If a collection agency has harassed you, you may be entitled to money damages up to $1,000.00, based on the FDCPA, which has 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 collectors can and cannot do while collecting a debt, as well as things debt collectors must do while collecting a debt. Plus, the FDCPA has a fee-shift provision. This means the collection agency pays your attorney’s fees and costs. Founding attorney, Michael Agruss, has settled over 1,500 debt collection harassment cases. We want to help you, too. h1