Understanding Law Firms and Debt Collection

 

There have been some recent court cases involving individuals who claim a lawyer falsely represented him or herself as a debt collector with extensive knowledge of the individual’s account and debts. Many of these cases have been lost because the court was shown the attorneys were only acting as debt collectors and made that quite clear in their debt collection letters. To really understand this, it may help to know a few things about law firms and debt collection.

Attorneys May Act as Debt Collectors

Lawyers do have the right to act as debt collectors, though they are not actually debt collectors. If a business needs help collecting a debt, they can hire an attorney to help them achieve that. It doesn’t mean the person in debt is getting sued, and it may not even mean the person is going to get sued in the future. It’s just someone using additional resources to secure payment for a debt.

Roles Must Be Clearly Defined

If an attorney is acting as a debt collector, he or she must clearly define his or her role in the collections process. In a debt collection letter, the law firm should be obviously identified with information about the company who referred the debt account. The law firm should state what debt is owed, when it is expected to be paid in full, and how and when the lawyer will return the account to the client, which would be the creditor. The letter should also state that the law firm’s sole purpose for the correspondence is to attempt to collect the debt.

Things Could Get Confusing

There are a lot of things that could get confusing about a situation in which a lawyer acts as a debt collector. If you are ever wondering what’s going on, you could always contact the attorney or the company for which you owe the debt. If the lawyer hasn’t clearly defined his or her role, or if there are other actions being taken, it could benefit you to hire your own lawyer to work through the particulars and figure things out.

Contacting a Lawyer

If you’re having trouble paying your bills and they keep getting sent to collections, it could make your financial circumstances more stressful. The good news is there are professionals trained in dealing with this very situation. For help working out the details of your debts, contact an asset protection lawyer in Wethersfield, CT today.

 

Thanks to The Law Offices of Ronald I. Chorches for their insight into bankruptcy law and debt collection.