A New Jersey woman hired the Law Office of Dimitrios Kolovos, LLC to file a lawsuit against the debt collector Arrow Financial Services, L.L.C. for allegedly violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The FDCPA is a powerful federal law regulating the conduct of consumer debt collectors. The Consumer, an elderly widow, filed her lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey located in Camden, New Jersey and demanded that judgment be entered against the Defendants for her statutory damages, actual damages, attorney’s fees, and the costs of her litigation.
The Complaint asks that a federal court find that Arrow Financial Services, L.L.C. (a junk debt buyer of old, defaulted debts) and/or its agents (believed to be the debt collection law firm, Hayt, Hayt & Landau, LLC, of Eatontown, New Jersey) unlawfully threatened to take the furniture, car, house, and paycheck of the consumer because she failed to pay an alleged consumer debt. In addition, the consumer alleged that Arrow Financial Services, L.L.C. or its agents called her employer and neighbors and unlawfully disclosed to them that an alleged debt was owed. “Obviously,” her attorney, Joseph A. Mullaney, III, said, “when a debt collector calls and discloses alleged debts to persons who have no business knowing, most consumers know to contact a consumer rights attorney right away.” “Far too often, unlawful disclosure of debts to others is a sign that collection efforts are going to become real ugly real fast,” he continued.
“What most consumers may not intuitively know, however,” Mullaney said “is that threats to take assets, such as homes, cars, furniture, and paychecks, are usually unlawful under the FDCPA.” The FDCPA generally outlaws these threats when either the debt collector has no intention of carrying out the threat or the debt collector is forbidden by law from doing so. For instance, ordinarily, wages cannot be taken in Pennsylvania though other states may freely permit wage garnishment. So, threatening to take the wages of a Pennsylvania consumer working in Pennsylvania may violate the FDCPA as an unlawful threat.In other instances, the debt collector may not have even sued the consumer, “so how can a car be taken without judicial intervention?” he asked.Anytime a threat is made by a debt collector, “that is a good time to start looking for an attorney because you do not want to be intimidated into paying debts or charges you may not owe,” Mullaney cautioned. It is not unusual for consumers to pay debts they know they do not owe because a debt collector credibly threatened to take personal items far more valuable to the consumer than the dollar value of the debt.“It is just outrageous what debt collectors can run away with!” Mullaney exclaimed.