#085 Debt Collections and Credit Reports- You Have Rights! (feat. Taylor Kosla)

Credit reports are one of the most misunderstood and popular topics  we talk about on almost an everyday basis. Debt collections could be a close second but both can bring a lot of stress and anxiety. We as consumers have rights yet most of us have no idea what those are. Taylor Kosla, a consumer right attorney and Partner at Agruss Law Firm in Chicago, Illinois  joined the crew to break down all the walls and misconceptions that are out there. We get in-depth regarding what debt collectors can and can't do, How to handle misinformation on your credit reports and how vitally important it is for us to know what's on them. We even dive into Mr. Cooper and the chaos that was the result. 

Transcript

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Intro 0:09

[inaudible] Welcome to Talk Wealth To Me, a safe space podcast, where we chat about anything and everything related to personal finance, the information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. It does not constitute as accounting , legal tax or other professional advice.

Chase Peckham 0:31

Welcome to another edition of talk wealth to me and Felipe today, we spoke with Taylor Kosla. She is an attorney at Agruss Law Firm in Chicago, Illinois, and she is a consumer rights advocacy, lawyer, and specializes in consumer protection, credit reports, debt collection. And boy, do we always get questions about that?

Felipe Arevalo 0:57

We sure do. And even we learned something new , So it's definitely worth listening to, and definitely worth your time. Even if you've never dealt with this situation of debt collections, you're going to learn some new stuff. You're going to be better informed.

Chase Peckham 1:15

Taylor, thank you so much for joining us today. Felipe is on another presentation. He will be here any minute . So when he jumps on , uh, we'll, we'll say hello to him, but again, thank you so much for being here, taking the time out.

Taylor Kosla 1:28

Thank you for having me Chase

Chase Peckham 1:30

What got you into consumer advocate law. What got you into consumer rights? What pushed you? There's so many different types of law that you can go into when you're going through law school. What pushed you in that direction?

Taylor Kosla 1:42

So I started working at law firms when I was in college and I was always drawn to personal injury, being a trial attorney and , um , starting in college and through throughout law school, I worked at various personal injury litigation firms, and I really, it just confirmed what I thought that I knew that I really liked , uh , litigation and being the idea of being a trial attorney, representing people. And after taking the bar exam, I was introduced to Mike Agruss, who is the managing partner at Agruss law firm. And he introduced me to a new area of law, consumer rights. And I honestly did not know much about what the practice of consumer rights was until I started working at Agruss Law Firm. It is a really broad area to practice in because it covers pretty much anything that goes wrong with the consumer. So that could be debt collection, credit report, deceptive business practices, robo calls. I mean, really the sky is the limits when it comes to consumer rights. And we just focus on a few areas of consumer rights , although , um, you know, there are a lot different areas of consumer rights. Law,

Chase Peckham 3:01

Consumer rights could go into like lemon law. It could go into auto consumer rights, all those different areas. So you're right. That's kind of like when people talk to us about , uh , having a , a financial literacy presentation or workshop, they'll say, Hey, can you do a financial literacy presentation? And you go, Hmm , what part? Because they are extraordinarily large. So talk about that, that area of focus. What is the bulk of the work that you do?

Taylor Kosla 3:32

The majority of our consumer rights practice is unlawful debt collection and inaccuracies on credit reports. So there is the fair debt collection practices act and that's a federal law. So it applies to everyone. And under that lot , there are, there are certain conduct that that collectors can and cannot do. And other things that they're actually required to do when communicating with a consumer. Um , the great thing about this statute is that there's a fee shift provision, meaning our clients don't pay us a penny. If we win the defendant that that collector actually has to pair attorney's fees. And Congress did this because they knew someone likely facing debt collection or who was behind in medical bills. They probably couldn't afford to retain an attorney. So that's a great benefit to consumers. And actually we practice under a few other law, consumer rights laws that also have that fee shift provision, which it's, you know, it's great for the consumer. Um, we handle fair credit reporting act cases, and that protects information on a consumer's credit report. Again, facia provision. They don't have to pay their attorney's fees and they're entitled to statutory and actual damages. So statutory damages under the FCRA are from zero to $1,000. Actual damages is money out of pocket that they money that they don't have as a result of this inaccuracy and inaccuracy on a credit report could cause a higher interest on a loan . Someone could be denied credit. They could even be denied a job because of something on their credit report. So that money out of pocket, those are their actual damages that they can recover under the FCRA. Another area that we practice under is a U depth statutes, which is basically deceptive business practices, act cases. Every state has their own statute that protects consumers from these deceptive business practices. We also practice under the electronic funds transfer act and that , uh , protects consumers transactions, their checking accounts to ensure that any unauthorized transaction , um, is covered under the electronic funds transfer act damages, actual and statutory statutory are between zero and a thousand dollars. And there's also the fee shift provision with that as well. So we were discussing earlier the Mr. Cooper, recent situation in that situation, they violated the electronic funds transfer act.

Chase Peckham 6:27

Okay. So let's start there because there's so much to bite off and chew with this because there are three major scenarios and topics that we can go over and I want to touch on those. So you brought up Mr. Cooper's and a lot of people will go, Mr. Cooper's what the heck is that? I also know that a lot of people will be very reluctant to give their bank account information, to pay their bills. And , and that's also very common within the mortgage industry. Uh, for those that don't, obviously you can't put, you don't want to put that on a credit card and can't, so give us an idea. What was that, Mr. Cooper's

Taylor Kosla 7:05

Right. And , um, so Mr. Cooper, their mortgage servicing companies , they're all, they also do businesses, nation, nation, star mortgage, I believe. And a couple of weeks ago over the weekend, they just withdrew multiple payments from their client's accounts, all of whom , uh , banked with CHASE bank , uh, we've sent , we currently represent a handful of people who are victim of this unauthorized transaction. I mean, one of our clients, she had seven on authorized payments come out of her checking account that amounted to over $10,000 in unauthorized payments.

Chase Peckham 7:43

She had that much in her account.

Taylor Kosla 7:46

No, and that's, that's a big part of the issue is these payments came out and there weren't enough fun. So now these clients are incurring insufficient fees, insufficient funds fees, or maybe they had enough money, but then another payment came out. So it's a real spiral effect. And then it's, you know, those missed payments are hitting their credit report. Um, Mr. Cooper, like most big companies they're pointing the blame at someone else they're blaming their vendor for these unauthorized payments, although they did reimburse , um, to our understanding most of the payments that they would through , uh , you know, it's kind of a headache and very frustrating for the consumer to figure out the extent of the damage that those withdrawals costs .

Chase Peckham 8:34

Can that be as simple as a computer glitch? I mean, it can't possibly be human error to make that many withdrawals when it's only supposed to go out once per month. Correct.

Taylor Kosla 8:46

And that is, what's so interesting about this is because some of the payments that were withdrawn, these clients didn't even have auto auto payments set up on their checking account .

Chase Peckham 8:59

Oh, well, that's crazy.

Taylor Kosla 9:01

Yeah. So could you imagine these hundreds, if not thousands of people wake up, I think it happened on like a Saturday morning. They wake up Saturday morning and you know, there's multiple payments out of their checking account. They're in the negative.

Chase Peckham 9:13

I can't even phantom

Felipe Arevalo 9:17

That would be bad. That would mess up a whole weekend. Just you wake up to a series of emails telling you that you're no money in there

Chase Peckham 9:25

And welcome to the podcast Felipe, how'd it go?

Felipe Arevalo 9:28

I tuned in a little late. I was in Tacoma, Washington presenting

Chase Peckham 9:34

Tacoma Washington, sitting in San Diego.

Felipe Arevalo 9:36

Exactly.

Chase Peckham 9:38

Well welcome. Uh , we have just gone over all kinds of incredible information. Uh,

Felipe Arevalo 9:45

I'm glad I didn't miss the Mr. Cooper story.

Chase Peckham 9:47

He was really enthralled enthralled with that. In fact, he sent me a few other links and stories about that. Uh , the other day, when you sent that, how is it possible? I mean, the bank has got to be pointing fingers. The Mr. Cooper's has gotta be pointing at a vendor. I mean, why just one bank? And if they're not even set up for that, I mean, how would anybody get those numbers? Because most people will tell you that when it comes to a transaction through your bank account, that that is probably safer than any other way of doing it. Uh, even through a credit card, even though credit cards typically are insured or you're going to get protected.

Taylor Kosla 10:28

Um, my guess is, and we don't know yet because this is if it were the very early stages of litigation, because it's just happened a couple of weeks ago. So I'm sure we'll find out more information over time. Um, if I had to guess , uh, they, you know, the people who didn't have the auto payment set up , they were probably writing checks from their checking account , um, and sending it to Mr. Cooper. So, although I wasn't a victim of this, Mr. Cooper instance, I actually was a victim of an electronic funds transfer act case, exact same situation , uh , with a mortgage servicing. Uh, two months ago, my mortgage was transferred to a new servicer. It was supposed to go into a five. I found like the 15th of the month, I saw that my payment was still withdrawn on the first and based on the letters I had received it wasn't supposed to, but I was like, okay, maybe they are going to continue to withdraw on the first of the month, on 15th of the month, they pulled the , a second payment out of my checking out .

Chase Peckham 11:34

Oh gosh

Taylor Kosla 11:34

So the prior servicer and the new servicer had each withdrawn payment, and I immediately called my bank and I'm like, I see this transaction pending. You need to look at my checking account. I already paid this month's mortgage statement or, and they were not helpful whatsoever.

Chase Peckham 11:52

The bank was not helpful?

Taylor Kosla 11:53

No, they're like, let me transfer you to the checking account department. And I'm like, they can't help me. You're the mortgage department look at my checking account. It's all under my same accounts. So , um , they , they would through the funds and over the next few days, they began an investigation. They eventually reimburse my account, but you know, you've been in this situation. I caught it before the payment posted. So it was still pending and they still wouldn't do anything.

Chase Peckham 12:26

Oh boy, that's interesting considering because that happens. And a lot of people don't know that, that when the mortgage debt can be bought and sold, while even though you're paying your mortgage, so you can end up with a different bank, a different lender, a different , uh, and then you get different servicers based on, and you've got to change your time of payment. Uh, that's happened to my wife and I over the 10 years that we've owned our home three or four times. Uh, and it's all of a sudden, you're going, Oh, I'm paying somebody else now. And you've got to set it all up again. It's a pain in the neck.

Taylor Kosla 12:58

And , and that's why I had been watching my account so closely because I wanted to make sure that the payment was going to be set up. Did I need to set up new auto pay with the new servicer I had, I had everything calendared out to make sure I was contacting the right service or at the right time. That's why I was able to catch it when I did not that it helped me.

Chase Peckham 13:17

Well, identity theft is on a lot of people's minds. Uh , this is obviously a huge thing right now. I mean, there's a local. I was saying before, when we were off the air, that there was a local health organization here in San Diego.

Felipe Arevalo 13:31

Oh yes.

Chase Peckham 13:31

That got data breached and who knows what kind of issues that's going to cause for us consumers considering Felipe that you and I are both a part of this health care system.

Felipe Arevalo 13:43

That's our healthcare provider.

Chase Peckham 13:45

Everything is shut down. You can't even get online or you can't use their app. You can't get appointments right now. There were, my kids had their physicals yesterday. They're doing everything off of paper. So literally none of the computers are working right now. It's pretty crazy. So in light of that, there are issues in , you mentioned earlier that you work with the credit reports. And then obviously I think there's that that's a big issue. One and two credit reports have some kind of misinformation on them, obviously at different severities, different levels. What do you run into? And at what point, because we talk about so much that we tell people they need to look at their credit reports constantly because at least twice a year, if not, and I look at mine more because of it, depending on the severity of the mistake, it could cost you a lot. At what point do consumers have recourse with the bureaus or are there other organizations that they can go for , go at.

Taylor Kosla 14:46

We give our clients the same advice, constantly monitor your credit report. And it's not just taking a brief look, Oh, my score hasn't changed. You really want to go line by line from the telephone numbers addresses to the account history. You want to make sure all that information is correct. A telephone number, an address, inquiries. If you see information that's not familiar to you , those are signs of, or could be signs of identity theft. Then you need to take action right away. If there's something inaccurate on your credit report, you should dispute it. You should send a written letter to all the bureaus, mail it to them, provide your identifying information, your address , uh , description of what's inaccurate. And why is it inaccurate ? Maybe the account belongs to, but the payment history is inaccurate. If you have proof to support your claim, maybe the account as a result of identity theft, and you have an FTC identity theft affidavit or a police report documenting your identity thoughts, attach that. We also advise clients to attach a copy of their driver's license. After you send the dispute to the bureaus , they've 30 days to investigate the dispute and then send you the results. If the inaccuracy is that fixed , uh , they've likely violated the fair credit reporting act. And that's a statute that I discussed briefly earlier. Um, so you'll , you'll need to retain an attorney to see if, you know, if you have a case against the bureaus and even the furniture. So the company that is furnishing the information to the credit bureaus.

Chase Peckham 16:38

Well, that's the question. So many people will blame the bureaus, but it isn't necessarily the Bureau's fault all the time. They have so many different files, right? So much information. How are the , can they possibly keep track of it all?

Taylor Kosla 16:53

So when the bureaus get a dispute letter, they often send it to each other. So if you send a dispute Equifax, they usually send it to Experian vice versa. And then they undoubtedly have to send it to the furnisher . And then it's on the furniture to complete an investigation as well, and then send the results back to the Bureau and the Bureau. Then contexts the consumer, usually by letter with the dispute results and a copy of their credit report posts , dispute.

Chase Peckham 17:27

That sounds like a giant process. I mean, and, and to get that all done in 30 days, it's gotta be daunting. That's gotta be difficult for them. What happens if they don't get it within that 30 days?

Taylor Kosla 17:38

So they can ha they can request an extension. I will say most of the time , uh, it's it's done within the correct period of time. I think they have really large departments, people handling these disputes and they crank them out relatively quickly, which is also why it's not surprising that they often don't correct inaccurate information.

Chase Peckham 18:02

That seems shocking. So are they just taking the furnishers word for it?

Taylor Kosla 18:07

They do. Um , and depending on what state you're in , uh, you know, case law can go both ways on this , whether you don't just parroting information and not conducting an investigation on their own is efficient, but I've had cases where we've had really hard evidence attached to a dispute like court judgment, saying someone's not liable for this account. And the Bureau still verify that the account belongs to them. I mean, situations like that, it's a no brainer that it doesn't even seem like the bureaus read the dispute letter. If they didn't consider the evidence that was enclosed with it,

Chase Peckham 18:45

Then what do you do at that point? You just keep hammering it, hammering away.

Taylor Kosla 18:50

Uh that's when you call an attorney, that's when you called me.

Chase Peckham 18:55

That's crazy.

Felipe Arevalo 18:57

It's crazy that it gets to that point. I would imagine majority of the time it's resolved before it gets there?

Taylor Kosla 19:05

No, actually a lot of the times they don't correct the inaccuracy and I'll tell you most I've FCRA clients. They don't call us looking for an attorney to Sue the credit bureaus. They call us because they're like , there's something inaccurate and I can't get it off. I've tried so many times disputing calling them online disputes. Um , and we're kind of their last ditch effort to get their credit report facts .

Chase Peckham 19:32

How do they, let's just say they're, they're trying to figure that out. How do you guys determine damages in that case? Um , how far back, how , I mean, how do they afford that? I mean, does the Bureau have to pay your attorney's fees if it gets to that point?

Taylor Kosla 19:49

Yeah. So I'm under the fair credit reporting act. Uh, there is a fee shift provision. That means if we, as the plaintiff prevail the defendant, the bureaus and the furniture I have to pay our attorney's fees. There are two types of damages. The consumer's entitled to under the FCRA statutory damages between zero and a thousand. And those are pretty straightforward . It means if they violated the law on these are the monetary damages that you're entitled to. In addition , they always correct the credit report, removing the account, updating it. And there's also actual damages. So unfortunately, a lot of consumers come to us a little too late. They don't monitor their credit reports like you and I tell them to , and they're applying or for a loan to buy house. And, you know , they see this account on their credit report. Um, so actual damages would be had they disputed it and the account wasn't corrected and they went through with that mortgage and they now have a higher interest rate on the difference between the higher interest rate and what that interest rate would have been. But for that inaccuracy, those are actual damages , um , where you can actually calculate what the client is out of, how much more that mortgage is costing them as a result of this inaccuracy. And it's not an easy thing to calculate most of the time. Um , that's something, you know, you'd want on economics to testify to it, an expert witness.

Chase Peckham 21:29

I was gonna say the math has gotta be incredibly difficult. Yes . Just because, well, for instance, FICO , uh, the way that they look at their , uh, or they build their, their scores. I mean, to prove that, you know, this inaccuracy had that major of an effect versus all your other practices, that's gotta be hard to prove.

Taylor Kosla 21:54

Yes, it is. But oftentimes , uh , you'll, you'll see that a client's credit report, you know, they don't, they don't change that much over time, especially with when someone's doing something like buying a house because they know that their finances are going to be analyzed to , for the loan approval process. Um, so, you know, if their credit score is different , um, you know, before and after dispute that again is evidence to support our claim that , um, for the actual damages,

Felipe Arevalo 22:25

That can be a huge amount of money because when you're talking mortgages, if the shift is just a percentage point in the APR over the course of a 30 year loan, that could be a significant shift. Uh, some of these, I would imagine are very big small numbers that add up to big amounts, right?

Taylor Kosla 22:47

Yes. But in a situation like that, that consumer has an opportunity to refinance after their credit reports effect . So you're, you're assuming that they actually, you know, keep the interest rate throughout the 30 years where most likely they're going to refinance after their credit reports fixed .

Felipe Arevalo 23:06

Gotcha.

Chase Peckham 23:07

Yeah. I would imagine that that 30 years, there's no way, especially with rates the way they are now, people who have had loans for a while are going to refinance, let's turn our attention to debt collection, which is an enormous topic , uh , with our constituents and the people that we work with across the country, because so many people are just don't know what to do in that situation. And when it comes to collection, give us a little bit of an idea of what it's like for people , uh, when they are, when debt is trying to be collected from them.

Taylor Kosla 23:44

There's a few that, that collectors communicate with consumers primarily over the phone. And by letter recently, we've been seeing Facebook messaging become somewhat common and text messaging before used to just be primarily calls and letters, but they are getting , uh , pretty creative with ways to communicate with consumers.

Chase Peckham 24:08

Well, with, with robo calls and robo texts and all these things that we get now. I mean, I don't, I can't count how many times I've been called by some organization trying to sell me , uh , my truck. What is it called Felipe?

Felipe Arevalo 24:27

Extended warranty.

Chase Peckham 24:29

Extended warranty. Yes! I mean, I get that literally daily. So what can people do? I mean, how would you even know what's legitimate and what's not,

Taylor Kosla 24:38

And that is a great point because one of the first things the debt collector is going to do when they get a consumer on the phone is ask for them to verify their identity by confirming their address or providing the last four of their social, which you should always be concerned to do over the phone for, you know, out of concern of being a victim of identity theft, however , um, you are allowed to dispute orally dispute the owing the debt. So if you're speaking with a collector on the phone, you want to get information about it. Who is the original creditor who currently owns the debt because oftentimes debt collectors are there . Third parties they're collecting for someone else. And it doesn't necessarily have to be the original creditor , um , debt collectors work under debt buyers. It's kind of a triangle. So you have the original creditor who sells the account to a debt buyer, and then the debt buyer transfers it to a collector to collect on its behalf. So it's important to find out who you're speaking with, what the account is , um, to figure out what, whether you actually owe the debt when you're speaking with them. Um, there are certain disclosures that they're required to make their , they have to disclose their identities. So the name of the collection agency and the fact that it's an attempt to collect the debt , um, disclose it's attempt to kill act debt that's commonly referred to as a Fody disclosure. And we often don't see that in text messages and voicemail messages. So if a collector's communicating with you keep communications like that because it's great evidence to build a case and you have telephone numbers normally in those messages. So then my firm , one of the first things we do when a consumer contacts us is they're like, Hey, I got this text message. Is this company legitimate. We usually call the numbers in the message or the number that sent them a message. And we'll verify for ourselves, you know, who's calling and depending on how they answer, we can identify whether they're legitimate or not. You know, if they refuse to tell us who they are, where they're located, chances are, they're not a legitimate company, but if they are legitimate, they will often tell us, Oh, we're this company where, they're usually out of Buffalo, New York, that's like the hub for that collection agencies. So it's important to get as much information as you can out of the collector when you're on the phone with them.

Felipe Arevalo 27:20

Yeah. It's almost like they read you your little Miranda rights. I know I used to call creditors , uh, on behalf of clients and every time you call a collection agency, they start with their little thing. This is a communication from a debt collector and it's the same one , uh, or very, very similar. And they always like, that's what they start off their conversations with. Uh, at least the legitimate ones. It seems like.

Chase Peckham 27:49

Are there things they should do for the consumer, the consumer when they get that call and should they ask questions? Should they just say as little as possible? Should they, I mean, are there things they can do? Do they have to, you know, we hear about debt verification. What should somebody do when they get those calls? Especially if they're taking , they're probably most of the time they're going to be not expecting that. Right? You would think that that could be kind of out of the blue. They're getting a call like that unless they're used to this kind of thing.

Taylor Kosla 28:21

And actually a lot of our clients are used to it because at some point or another, they fell on tough times whether they were really sick or a family member was really sick. So it can be a really confusing process for them to figure out what accounts are outstanding. It could be several accounts from one hospital. So I think it's definitely important for a consumer to get as much information about the account as possible. And you could request for the debt collector to provide a verification or validation of the debt, and they will send you a letter in the mail. Um, with that information, it'll have the account number and the balance, the current creditor and the original creditor.

Chase Peckham 29:03

Okay. So they should, but as far as giving their own, because they're obviously the debt collector is going to be asking all kinds of questions too . How much should the, the consumer divulge in that situation?

Taylor Kosla 29:18

So that's, that's kind of a tricky, there's a thin line there. You don't want to provide them too much information in the event that they're not legitimate. I think it's fair to say, you know, this is so-and-so and, you know, ask them to provide your address and say, you know, tell me, I'll give you my house number rather than the full address or things like that. Just enough for them to verify who you are, because the reason they're doing that is the FDCPA does not allow for them to disclose your debt to a third party. So they want to make sure they're talking to you, not a family member and not a friend because when they start that this is an attempt to collect a debt. The second they say "debt", if they're not talking to you , um, that that's a good argument for third party disclosure. And that's a violation of that. FDCPA

Chase Peckham 30:18

You hear so many horror stories of, from people about the different calls that they get from these organizations, these companies, and I guess it can get pretty crazy. There are many laws that protect us from that, but that doesn't stop these organizations from, from bending the rules a little bit

Taylor Kosla 30:42

Violations are very common in the debt collection industry. They really vary a lot, a lot of threats though. They'll threat threatened to send clients to jail or to have the sheriffs come to their house, come to their place of employment. Some of them will actually contact their employers. And unless there is a judgment that they can garnish wages, that is a very deceptive practice. Um, often there's the veiled threat of, you know, we'll serve you with papers and these clients are they're terrified. They answer the phone. They're , they're getting threats. Um, and not everyone contacts an attorney, mostly because they can't afford an attorney, or they don't think that they can afford an attorney, but Congress did create these laws to protect them. And sometimes you only way you'll get that harassment to stop is by contacting an attorney to intervene.

Chase Peckham 31:45

So how should people go about , uh , knowing or what case should people know that their , uh , laws have been violated or, or their rights have been violated?

Taylor Kosla 31:56

I would say if you're getting calls or letters from collectors to reach out to a consumer rights attorney, to see if your rights have been violated , um, if they contact you before, I believe it's 8:00 AM and after 9:00 PM, that's a violation of the law . So take screenshots of call it, keep the voicemail. Messages keeps the text messages. We've also seen a lot of emails being sent recently. So keep emails. If they're sending you, they also, they still need to , to school. Is it the communications and attempt to collect the debt? And it's from a debt collector in emails, text messages, voicemail, Messages. So though it's really good, hard evidence to build your, and that's easy for me as an attorney to evaluate, okay, this is the collector. That's contacting them. These are the violations. This is how we're going to proceed with the lawsuit. It's a lot harder when we get a call, like, I don't know who's calling me. I don't know what they're collecting on. They wouldn't tell me anything because we really can't evaluate anything at that point..

Felipe Arevalo 33:02

That is very interesting. Is it something where if they're being threatening, if they're just kind of mentioning in passing, do these collection agencies, you know, I don't , maybe we should talk to an attorney because you guys seem to be mean might that simple statement and be like , um ,

Chase Peckham 33:23

You're a Meany.

Felipe Arevalo 33:23

Maybe we should , uh. I've I've little kids , sorry, mean is a big word , uh , you know , will that maybe trigger them to slow it down and , and , and does that sometimes work or is it not until they see paperwork from an attorney where they're like, okay, we need a backup

Taylor Kosla 33:43

The rouge collectors. They don't really care. However, under the act FDCPA, if you are represented by an attorney that collectors cannot communicate with you , um, if you are presented and they call you, you should tell them, Hey, I'm are presented by aqueous law firm. Most of them have our contact information, but give them more number. Um, and then all communications will be redirected to our office. If they continue to contact you after that, that's a violation of the FTC PA , but you'll see, even consumers will say, just stop calling me. They'll keep calling and that's harassment under the FDCCPA.

Chase Peckham 34:24

So what happens when you get into that, they're breaking the law yet you still technically own that debt or owe that debt. How , how do you come? I know every situation be a little bit different, but how do you come to a , uh , a finality? How do you come to , uh , whether they owe the debt? They don't know the debt, but then they are in trouble. They, I mean, that's gotta be very kind of dicey and how that ends up.

Taylor Kosla 34:52

It can be in , it really depends on who the defendant is and their relationship to whoever owns the debt at that time sometimes. And I'd say actually, pretty often we can get our clients debt waiver. And that, that waiver tends to be far more than what they are entitled to as far as statutory damages under the FDCPA. And the reason for this is because once a debt collector realizes the consumer is sophisticated enough to retain an attorney. They know if that account gets passed on to another collector, it's likely going to be problematic because most that collectors violate the law. So in situations like that, if collector has the authority to waive that, that it could even be three, $4,000 on they'll likely waive it in exchange for the cash component under the statutory damages portion of that. DCPA .

Chase Peckham 35:53

And what about we hear about length of death there's in every state, there is a statute of limitations on collecting debt. How often that debt may not even be within the statute of limitations anymore.

Taylor Kosla 36:06

I just worked on a case this morning with this exact fact pattern because our client was receiving letters about a debt that did not disclose the debt was past the statute of limitations. So this is a very slippery slope because if in fact, my client were to make a payment on a debt, despite it being past the statute of limitations, it will revise the statute of limitations and start all over because the statute of limitations go about goes by the last activity on the account. So one payment re triggers that, which is why it's really important that they disclose when an account is past the statute of limitations.

Felipe Arevalo 36:47

Will, simply talking to a debt collection agency revive that, that, or does it have to be a payment or what considers? Cause I know sometimes people are like, don't talk to the debt collection agency. If that's past the limitations.

Chase Peckham 37:01

Don't verify your identity, verify your identity.

Felipe Arevalo 37:03

But at the same time, you don't, you might verify your identity and talk to them before you even know what debt you're talking about.

Taylor Kosla 37:09

It won't be revived unless there's a payment on the account. So you can ask them to verify the debt and you can make that determination yourself or contact an attorney and say, I don't think this is within the statute. However, if it is within the statute and you have that, don't ignore it. You do want to get it taken care of. Cause it's just going to keep coming back to haunt you

Chase Peckham 37:33

At what point, and this might be hard to know or gauge, but at what point will a collector and you tell me how often will they go? And through the process of going through the courts and trying to get , uh, your , uh, your income garnished,

Taylor Kosla 37:51

It happens. It really depends on the collector and how much the account is worth. And they can also run, you know, information checks on people to see how much money they're making, to determine whether this is something that they'd actually be able to collect on. If someone is on disability and that's their only income, it's very unlikely that a company is going to file a lawsuit, get a judgment and then garnish wages. So it depends case by case , uh , account value, whether they think that there's a strong likelihood of collecting on it. And we know that there are certain collectors that do Sue. So when we have a client reach out to us and getting these threats of a lawsuit, we can relatively easily make that determination. If it's on more familiar with this is an empty threat, they never Sue, or this is a very legitimate threat. And you want to resolve this stat with them.

Chase Peckham 38:50

I know that this could be a pain for you and in what you do. But I mean, is there any reason that somebody, when they're going through this, shouldn't just reach out to a consumer advocate attorney that specializes in this. I mean, it doesn't seem like there's any downside to it. To me,

Taylor Kosla 39:07

There is not , um, at the very least you will learn about your consumer rights, which I think is important for everyone to know. Um, like I mentioned earlier with my story of my mortgage, it's important that everyone knows their rights so that you can act appropriately and protect those rights.

Chase Peckham 39:26

Yeah. Knowledge is power. That's a cliche. Right. But it is a power Taylor, thank you so much for being with us today. I mean, this is incredible information and there's some things that even, I didn't know, I've been doing this for 13 years, but I am also glad to know that we are telling people the right information. Thank you very much. We really appreciate it. And um, we'll , uh, hopefully let's do this again and have you back to talk about how this Mr. Cooper's thing went when it's all said and done. Thank you so much for having me appreciate it, Taylor. Thank you. [inaudible] .