The reason you are likely having troubles may be inaccurate or obsolete information, not just negative credit.

Many credit repair clinics try to abuse the system and get accurate information removed by a procedural ploy of disputing the account and hoping that the creditor fails to respond. We, on the other hand, go after the items that are hurting you that are inaccurate. The mortgage business is very credit score driven; often a good loan can be achieved by only correcting the incorrect credit information. If you contest accurate information, you will not look as honest to a jury when we sue the violators over refusing to correct the inaccurate information.

Second

There is a more important reason that we recommend against credit repair.

The credit industry’s methods of investigating your disputes essentially consists of asking the company they like to call “your creditor “whether or not the information is accurate. They ordinarily believe whatever “your creditor” tells them. Often a valid dispute gets no result other than “re-verified as accurate”. If a credit repair company handles your dispute the law actually states that the bureau need not do any investigation.

Third

They can’t do anything in court for you.

If they don’t get you complete and absolute satisfaction, you’ll have to get an attorney anyway. They can’t sue or represent you in court. So they are of no use to you if you need to take things further in the legal system.

***Thanks to Blair Drazic attorney at Law for contributing to this faq.

The post 3 Reasons Why You May Not Want to use Credit Repair Companies appeared first on Patric Lester and Associates.

1. Are they licensed in your state?

Verify that they are licensed at the State Bar Association’s web site and see if and when they got their license.

Missouri, go to https://mobar.org/public/LawyerSearch.aspx

• Type in the last and first name of the attorney you would like to check on. The search will return the attorney’s bar number, how long they’ve been a lawyer (date of admission to the Missouri Bar), and whether or not they are an active member in good standing, or another status.

California, go to https://www.calbar.ca.gov/

• At the top left side of the page click on “Attorney Search”
• Type in the last and the initial of first name of the attorney, followed by a comma and then their last name. The search will return the attorney’s bar number, current status, contact information and how long they’ve been a lawyer (date of admission to the California Bar), as well as whether or not the attorney has had any disciplinary or administrative actions.

2. Compare the lawyer’s website with what the state bar says.

Check their website and see if their biography or “about” page says how long they’ve been a lawyer. That should agree with the state bar. The state bar page is accurate.  For example, look at my information or click on “Attorney Profile” at the top of the page.

3. Are they a member of the national consumer lawyer’s organization?

Go to National Association of Consumer Attorneys (NACA) webpage, and see if they are listed. NACA requires its members to show they do not represent collection companies, banks or mortgage companies but that they do represent consumers. They thoroughly research any lawyer attempting to join their organization. Most well known respected consumer lawyers are members. If the lawyer you’re thinking of hiring isn’t a member I would question why.

Select “Find An Attorney”

• Select the State (Missouri or California) and type in the last name of the attorney. The search will return the attorney’s name, year they joined NACA, a firm name and office location.
• Click on the link for the attorney’s name, you’ll be given their website, if they have one, and email address.

4. Are they licensed to practice in Federal Court? (United States District Court)

Because these cases may end up in Federal Court, you may want to know if the attorney is also admitted to practice there. The Federal Courts require an additional law license to represent people in front of their courts even if they are licensed in that state’s bar.

In Missouri:

Call the Clerk of the District Court to find out if a particular attorney is licensed to practice before the Federal Court; the Clerk will  check that information for you. It is public information but not presently available on their website.

• Clerk, United States District Court for the Eastern District Missouri – 314-244-7900

In California:

You can check to see if an attorney is admitted to practice in Federal District Court (Southern District of California) by going to https://www.cacd.uscourts.gov/attorneys/admissions/attorney-admissions-search

• Select “Attorney Assistance”
• Choose “Attorney Admissions Search”
• Type in the last name of the attorney you are researching
• Click on the linked name of the attorney out of the list. It will return information including name, and how long they’ve been practicing before the Federal Bar (date of admission)
• Finally are they “registered in ECF”? ECF is electronic case filing and it is required if you file lawsuits in that Federal Court. If they aren’t registered they probably never sue any collectors or debt buyers in Federal Court.

5. Finally, call the attorney and ask when they were licensed, what law school they graduated from and if they are a member of NACA and/or the local Federal bar.

They should have no hesitation in giving you that information and you can compare it with what you have found.

The post 5 Ways to Find Out How Experienced a Lawyer Is appeared first on Patric Lester and Associates.

There’s no doubt about it: you are responsible for your debts. If you fall behind in paying your creditors — or if you dispute the legitimacy of a debt — a debt collector may contact you.

“Time-barred” debts are debts so old they are beyond the point at which a creditor or debt collector may sue you to collect. State law varies as to when a creditor or debt collector may no longer sue to collect: in most states, the statute of limitations period on debts is between 3 and 10 years; in some states, the period is longer.

Federal law imposes limitations on how debt collectors can collect debts, including time-barred debts. Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), a “debt collector” generally is any person or organization that regularly collects debts owed to others. The term includes lawyers who collect debts for others on a regular basis, but it does not include creditors collecting their own debts.

To learn more about time barred debts go to the FTC’s cite at https://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt144.shtm

The FDCPA prohibits debt collectors from engaging in any unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices while collecting debts. It does not erase any legitimate debt that you owe. To learn more about your rights under the FDCPA, take a look at the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Collecting Time-Barred Debts

Most courts that have addressed the issue have ruled that the FDCPA does not prohibit debt collectors from trying to collect time-barred debts, as long as they do not sue or threaten to sue you for the debt. If a debt collector sues you to collect a time-barred debt, you can have the suit dismissed by letting the court or judge know the debt is, indeed, time-barred.

Whether a time-barred debt — or any debt for that matter — can appear on your credit report depends on how long the debt has been delinquent: debts that have been delinquent more than seven years cannot appear on your credit report, with certain exceptions. In addition, a debt collector may not try to collect a debt that has been discharged in bankruptcy, no matter when it was incurred. Learn more about credit reporting.

Contact with Collectors

Can a debt collector continue to contact you about a time-barred debt you don’t think you owe? According to the law, if you send the debt collector a letter stating that you do not owe some or all of the money within 30 days after you receive written notice of a debt, the collector must stop trying to collect until you’ve been given written verification of the debt, like a copy of the bill for the amount you supposedly owe. The collector can renew collection activities once you’ve gotten proof of the debt.

You can stop debt collectors from contacting you about any debt, regardless of whether you owe it, by writing a letter telling them to stop contacting you. Once the collector gets your letter, it may not contact you again — except to say there will be no further contact or to let you know that the collector or creditor intends to take some specific action. Sending a letter doesn’t absolve you of the debt if you actually owe it; the debt collector or creditor still could sue you for the debt.

The post Time-Barred Debts appeared first on Patric Lester and Associates.

1. When convenient (not when driving or in a meeting) answer the calls you believe are from any caller be it a debt collector or a solicitation call (should be the same number or numbers on caller ID) and immediately hang up. You do not have to say anything. Only calls you answer show up on your cell phone bill.
2. Save missed calls and spam texts (calls you do not answer) on your phone and if possible copy them to computer for a backup copy in case your phone gets lost.
3. Get copies of old phone bills from your carrier and email the pdf to me.
4. Print out a call log to document calls that show an unlisted number that you do answer and can determine they came from the same or another collector. CLICK HERE for a call log form.
5. When you speak to them and determine the company tell them in no uncertain terms to stop calling your number.
   • You do not need to write a cease letter to revoke any consent or trigger treble damages in the TCPA, it can be orally.
6. Immediately after telling them to stop calling (#5 above) send an email to a close friend telling that friend that you spoke to (name of debt collector) on your phone (enumerate your number) and told him/her to stop calling you at that number. This is evidence that you made the call under Federal Rules of Evidence 803(5) recorded recollection.

Call or contact me below with any questions.

Thank you.

The post Gathering evidence for your robocalling cell phone or spam text case. appeared first on Patric Lester and Associates.

“Corporations took a shot at gutting America’s privacy laws, and they missed.”
– Paul Bland

The Supreme Court has held in Spokeo, Inc.v. Robins, that, in a nutshell, consumers are injured even if they don’t lose money on credit report violations. Corporations can’t get away with violating consumers’ rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) just because the consumer can’t point to losing a specific dollar figure because the corporation violated federal law.

It’s common knowledge that an accurate credit report is as valuable today as a horse was in the old west. Losing it would definitely hurt you but the actual dollar figure harm can take years to show up. Indeed, it may not show up until someone or something, (bank, future employer, insurance company), decides to inflate the cost for credit on loans or purchases, insurance or even decline to offer a job. Wrong information on a credit report can be like a land mine waiting to be stepped on. The consumer is unaware of it till someone pulls the report and his credit score and/or job prospect gets blown up.

Paul Bland at Public Justice (Public Justice pursues high impact lawsuits to combat social and economic injustice and challenge predatory corporate conduct and government abuses.) analyzed the decision in a well thought out straight forward analysis.

You can find the analysis at http://www.publicjustice.net/8665-2/

Here’s an excerpt:

Corporations took a shot at gutting America’s privacy laws, and they missed.

Every justice agreed — the decision is unanimous — that consumers can bring claims for statutory damages (where Congress says that if a corporation breaks some law, it must pay a fixed sum, even if the claims are hard to prove), even if the consumer has not lost money or suffered a personal injury.

Corporate advocates had asked the Supreme Court to gut the nation’s privacy laws. They argued even consumers alleging that false statements had been made about them did not have a right to bring a case in federal court unless they could show an economic harm. The Court refused to take that step, and rejected the conclusion that corporate defenders sought in this case.

Corporate defendants also wanted the Supreme Court to say that Congress couldn’t pass laws protecting consumers against illegal actions unless the corporation breaking the law had taken money from consumers. But the Court disagreed with Corporate America on that one too, and recognized that Congress can create “legally cognizable injuries” even if they were previously ‘inadequate in law” to be something that a consumer could sue over. So, for example, the Court recognized and applied an earlier Supreme Court decision noting that a consumer can bring a lawsuit for “failure to obtain information subject to disclosure” under a federal law.

Read opinion at http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/15pdf/13-1339_f2q3.pdf.

All in all, it’s a victory for consumers.

The post Supreme Court Gets It Right in Spokeo appeared first on Patric Lester and Associates.

While the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, (“TCPA”) protects you from unwanted robo calls it doesn’t help with illegal scammers. You could sue them if you could find them but you usually can’t.

However, there is plenty you can do though.

If you think you are being contacted by scammers that are not actual legal debt collectors, here is some advice for things you can take do to protect yourself.

Tips for Dealing with Scammers

1. Do not engage them in detailed conversation. If they are legitimate they will give you the name of their company, the original creditor and amount owed. If they won’t give you that information immediately, they are probably crooks trying to steal your identity so they can get credit in your name, buy merchandise using your information even take out payday loans in your name.
2. If they have personal information such as your address, date of birth and/or last four digits of your social security I’d advise to be prudent you put a freeze on your credit reports. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0497-credit-freeze-faqs
3. Giving them any of your personal information puts you at risk for all kinds of economic injury. Even just calling them back can result in them stealing money from you. https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/one-ring-wireless-phone-scam
4. What about if you recognize the number? It may not be who you think it is.Scammers can fake caller ID info and do. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/scammers-can-fake-caller-id-info

Many of these scammers manage to steal people’s identity and/or sell their phone numbers as “good numbers’ fertile for all kinds of scams. They do this while almost never being caught or prosecuted even by some of the most powerful law enforcement agencies including the FBI and state law enforcement.

• I would encourage you to browse the FCC and FTC websites for a variety of malicious scams to give you an idea of just how creative and widespread this problem is. https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0258-fake-debt-collectors
  https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/blog/official-sounding-calls-about-email-hack

• For more excellent tips go to https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0060-10-ways-avoid-fraud
• Also subscribe to FTC’s scam alert
• Get a call blocker for your cell phone that has a data base of numbers that have been identified as scams. My person favorites are Mr. Number and Hiya (formally White pages)

Finally, if it is a legitimate caller and they are robo calling you, call or email me at info@lesterlaw.com to find out if we can help.

Thank you

The post Harassed by Scammers? appeared first on Patric Lester and Associates.

A lot of people think it is OK for a bill collectors and salespeople to call or text you on your cell. Well, most of the time, a lot of times it’s not… and it can cost them $500 to $1500 a call under the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act or TCPA.

Few people know about the TCPA. It was passed by the United States Congress over 20 years ago. The law says, in a nutshell,

• companies, not just debt collectors and your creditors,
• can’t call or text your cellphone
• with an autodialer (ATDS) or with a pre-recorded message
• without your consent and if they do
• it’s $500 – $1500 for each call or text made, whether you answer it or not.

But there are 2 small catches

• The calls have to be from an auto dialer (which isn’t an issue if it’s a pre-recorded message) I’ll talk about that more in a minute and here’s the important one

• You can’t have given them express consent.

How do you give them express consent?

Often when you got the credit card or bought the thing they are now going after you to pay for, you put a phone number on the application. If you put your cell number, the one they’re calling you on, then you gave express consent and they are not breaking the law by calling you. In some instances you can revoke your consent. While some courts have said verbal or oral revoking is good I would put it writing and send it certified mail return receipt requested, just to make sure.

If you call them back with your cell that’s not prior  express consent.

What’s an auto dialer or ATDS and how do you know they’re calling with one of those? (Again, not an issue if its a pre-recorded message.)

Short answer you don’t absolutely know. But most of the industry uses them and usually you can tell when you phone rings and you answer it and there’s a short delay before your hear anything, that probably an automatic telephone dialing system or auto dialer, for short. Odds are if you are getting one of these calls or texts on your cell it’s a company using an auto dialer.

Other laws like the FDCPA or Fair Debt Collection Practices Act apply to what most people would consider harassing calls to land lines by debt collectors.

But here’s the great part of this law we’re talking about now, TCPA.

It doesn’t have to be harassing. Any call they make is against the law. It can be civil and friendly and even helpful, but if it’s to your cell phone it violates the law.

All they have to do is call your cell with an auto dialer or pre-recorded message without your consent.

How would these people get my cell number?

There are a lot of places on the internet where someone can look up your cell phone number if they have your name and general area where you live.

But more commonly the way they get your cell number is when you call them back on your cell phone when you get a dunning letter or a collection call at home or work and they then “trap” your cell phone number. After that they’ve got it.

So what should they do?

1. Save the record of the phone number that called to your cell. If you know how you should download the messages with a date and time stamp to a digital recorder or computer. Also if they leave messages you need to save those for 2 reasons:
   • They show obviously who made the call and when
   •  Sometimes the messages themselves will violate other laws against harassing phone calls.
2. Save your cell phone bills that have the numbers of the company that called your cell. ONLY CALLS YOU ANSWER, EVEN IF YOU IMMEDIATELY HANG UP AFTER SAYING HELLO, SHOW UP ON MOST CELL PHONE BILLS (Tracfone is different as they do not generally send out bills.)
3. Finally  call a lawyer who handles these type of cases.

To wrap up,  even though we’ve been talking about cell phone calls and the TCPA, any calls made to any phone can violate the FDCPA. There are so many ways to violate that law (See article on my website Lesterlaw.com “17 ways debt collectors break the law when they call you“).

Hope you found this interesting. Take care.

Pat Lester

Legal disclaimer. The postings are designed for general information only. The information presented  should not be construed, nor is it intended to be, formal legal advice and is merely public service information and does not nor is it intended to be the formation of a lawyer/client relationship. Persons accessing this post are encouraged to seek legal advice from an attorney regarding their individual legal problem and questions. No attorney-client relationship or protection of any confidential information exists, until a written agreement is signed.

The post Debt Collectors Calling Your Cell? What is the TCPA? appeared first on Patric Lester and Associates.