USING FEDERAL CONSUMER STATUTES
communicate with a consumer on
a landline phone. However, the
TCPA prohibits debt collectors
from robo-calling and/or using prerecorded/artificial voice messages
in communications to a consumer’s
cell-phone.
Despite the avalanche of lobbying
efforts by the banking and debt
collection industry, the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC) recently
affirmed its prior orders holding
that where a consumer never
consented to being contacted on
his cell phone (i.e. provided his cell
number to the original creditor) or
after a consumer revokes consent
to being contacted on a cell phone,
the creditor/collector must stop
robo-dialing that cell phone. The
statutory damages for violating the
TCPA are $500 per call and may
be trebled after determination that
the creditor/collector made the calls
“knowingly and willfully.”
Many times consumers believe
that bankruptcy is the only way
to resolve the stress associated
with debt collection harassment
and illegal conduct and so they
go to see a bankruptcy lawyer.
A bankruptcy lawyer can easily
determine whether consumers
are being harassed, abused, or
unlawfully treated. The FDCPA and
TCPA provide remedies to help
extinguish the consumer’s debt
and avoid bankruptcy altogether.
Alternately, where the consumer
owes too much debt or has too
many creditors, FDCPA and TCPA
settlements may be used to pay
for bankruptcy legal fees and
costs, paying down Chapter 13
– reorganization base plans and
obtaining an earlier discharge for
the consumer debtor.
Bankruptcy
practitioners
and
bankruptcy trustees should be
on the lookout for these types of
National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
Winter 2015
violations as the settlements from
these consumer violations can
benefit both them and their clients.
Rex C. Anderson – 1992 - Present
– Principle of Rex Anderson PC,
Davison, MI – practicing exclusively
in Fair Debt Collection Practice Act
(FDCPA), Telephone Consumer
Protection Act (TCPA), Fair Credit
Reporting Act (FCRA), State
Consumer Law, Injury Litigation and
Consumer Bankruptcy litigation.
Memberships
include
Council
Member of Michigan Consumer
Law Section, National Association
of Consumer Advocates (NACA),
Michigan Association for Justice
(MAJ), National Association of
Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys
(NACBA), Flint Bay-City Bankruptcy
Bar Association (FBBA), Lapeer
and Genesee County and Michigan
State Bar Associations.
Email: [email protected].
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