Congress Passed The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act To Protect . . . Debt Collectors?

LITTLE KNOWN FACT ABOUT THE FDCPA – IT IS DESIGNED TO PROTECT DEBT COLLECTORS!

Most people assume that the reason Congress passed the FDCPA – Fair Debt Collection Practices Act – was to protect consumers from abusive debt collectors.

This is one of the two reasons.

But the other reason often surprises consumers — Congress wanted to protect debt collectors.  But not just any debt collectors.  Congress wanted to protect honorable . . . law abiding . . . collectors.

But from who?

Crazy consumers who file frivilous suits?

No.  There is protection against this type of misconduct by consumers but that is not why Congress passed the FDCPA and has kept it around for over 30 years.

Instead honorable debt collectors needed and continue to need protection against . . . abusive debt collectors.

Odd?  Well, think of it this way.  Dishonorable abusive debt collectors have an unfair advantage in the marketplace over those who do not break the law.  That’s not fair.  Just like it is not fair to let one football team have 12 players on the field but the other team — which follows the rules — only has 11 players.

I remember getting a call from a frustrated debt collection attorney in Alabama.  He had just lost a bunch of business to a new debt collection attorney.

Well, marketing is part of the business of practicing law so why was he upset?

The FDCPA says that consumers have 30 days to dispute a debt after receiving the first letter from the collector.  (You can dispute after the 30 days but there are some special things that happen with a dispute in the first 30 days).

This new collection lawyer told the clients of the older collection lawyer that he was “more agressive” and would only give consumers 14 days to dispute – not 30 days….

So the clients fired the older collection lawyer who was acting honorably and following the law.

This is one opf the reasons why Congress had to pass the FDCPA – to help protect legitimate debt collectors from being at a disadvantage when competing with abusive collectors who will break the law.