Polow Polow & Mahoney, an experienced FDCPA law firm, will represent you 100% free of charge with assistance and legal representation fighting out of state debt collectors. The law requires that debt collectors pay our fees when they violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Abusive debt collectors are liable for up to $1,000 in damages, as well as court costs and attorney’s fees. Please call 802-888-7707 now for a free case review, with no cost or obligation.
Polow Polow & Mahoney is a law firm based in Hyde Park, Vermont, specializing in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, serving all of Vermont. We represent Vermonters being harassed and abused by out of state debt collectors. We protect the rights of consumers when they are subject to abusive debt collection.
Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the Vermont Consumer Fraud Statute, we assert our clients’ rights against unfair and abusive activities such as:
- Anonymous calls from bill collectors
- Collection calls early in the morning or late at night (before 8:00 A.M. or after 9:00 P.M.)
- Calls at work by collection agencies or their attorneys, particularly after being told to stop making the calls
- Harassment, intimidation, use of obscenities or lies by collectors or their attorneys
- Threats of any actions that are not taken or intended to be taken
- Communication (or threats of same) to friends, family, neighbors or co-workers
- Not informing you that you have the right to dispute the debt
- Threats of a lawsuit, arrest, harm to you or your family, or appearing at your home
- Threats of wage garnishment
- Threats of negative credit reporting or to “ruin” your credit
- Attempts to collect more than you owe, and adding undisclosed fees or costs to the debt
- Attempts to collect a debt you have already paid
- Attempts to collect a debt that has been discharged in bankruptcy
- Filing of collection suits when the statute of limitations has expired
What is the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act? Congress passed the FDCPA in 1978. It is a Federal law designed to protect the rights of the consumer from abusive and unfair debt collecting practices. The law regulates what collection agencies can or cannot do when collecting a personal debt from a consumer. It defines guidelines which collection agencies must abide by when conducting business, including whom the collection agency may contact or whom they may call, how often and at what times.
Here is a typical example of an abusive debt collection practice. A client of ours paid his credit card debt in full in 2003. Beginning in 2007, a debt collector would call and harass him about a debt he had already paid. He provided the debt collector with paperwork that proved the debt had been paid, including a settlement agreement with the debt collector’s attorney and the check which the debt collector had cashed years before. The phone calls and letters would go on for several months at a time and then would mysteriously stop for approximately a year -- like a mold that always returned, even though you would think it had been cleared away.
Please remember, we will represent you completely free of charge.
