It can happen to anyone. Whether it is due to a lost job, a medical emergency, a divorce, or any of the other roadblocks that life can throw in your path, even the most responsible and conscientious person can fall behind on their bills. When this happens to you it can feel like the world has lost every ounce of basic human compassion it once held as bill collectors use humiliating and abusive practices to try to force you to pay them. It can feel hopeless. After all, often you do owe at least some portion of the bills but the cycle of interest fees and late charges has ballooned the problem to a degree that even if you had never had financial troubles you wouldn’t know what to do. Fortunately, you have rights and our NY Debt Defense Attorneys can help you fight for them by using laws like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
What Are Your Legal Rights?
You have the right to not be harassed by debt collectors. This includes a right to be free from excessive phone calls (including calls early in the morning or late at night), abusive language, and threats. Specifically, debt collectors cannot threaten violence or that you will be harmed or arrested for failure to pay. You also have a right to not have the existence of your debts disclosed to other people who are not authorized to know about your debts, like your boss for example. You also have the right to demand proof that you actually even owe the debt they are claiming you owe.
A NY Debt Defense Lawyer Can Help
Perhaps the most beautiful thing about the law is that as soon as you tell the collectors that you have a debt defense attorney and who your debt defense attorney is, the calls will stop. Then they will have to deal with us, not you, so you can stop experiencing that horrifying jump in blood pressure every time the phone rings. There is also a way we can force them to verify the debts before any further action is taken if you get us involved early enough in the process. But even after that, there are even better things we can do to make abusive lenders pay for the harm they have caused you. In appropriate cases, we can file a lawsuit for violations of your rights.
If the violations are willful, that is, they are either intentionally or recklessly committed by the harassing debt collector then we can recover what are called statutory damages. That means that we can recover a certain amount of money for you without even having to prove that you suffered any sort of financial harm because of the violation. If you did suffer actual harm, we can also pursue compensation for that harm. If the lawsuit is successful, the court will also order the debt collector to pay your attorney fees.
Call Bromberg Law Office, P.C.
If you have been a victim of debt collection abuse, you deserve to finally have someone on your side who will fight for you. You need an experienced New York debt defense and consumer protection attorney. The Bromberg Law Office can help.
Call us today at (212)248-7906 or fill out the contact form below.