Why I Am A Consumer Protection Lawyer

JOHN AND STAN, WHY ARE YOU CONSUMER PROTECTION LAWYERS?

Like most people, we get asked "what we do" by people and as we answer that we will usually say that "I am a consumer lawyer."  Which leads to several questions which we thought we would go ahead and address here.

WHAT IS A CONSUMER LAWYER OR A CONSUMER PROTECTION ATTORNEY?

A consumer lawyer or a consumer protection attorney is a lawyer that fights for his or her clients who are individuals (consumers) as opposed to partnerships, businesses, or corporations.  Typically the consumer is facing issues with debt collection, unsafe products, identity theft, credit reporting issues, or issues related to foreclosures. 

WHAT TYPES OF CASES DO YOU HANDLE?

Our cases revolve around three main types.

First, so many Alabama consumers are being threatened with or have actually faced foreclosure from their mortgage company.  They may be sued to eject or evict them from their home or they may be facing a foreclosure sale date in the very near future.  Often this type of consumer has made great efforts to save their home but everything seems to be falling apart.  We have an article that discusses the three stages of foreclosure as well as an article that discusses the details of a wrongful foreclosure case in Alabama.

Second, many of our clients are facing abusive debt collectors.  These clients may be facing a lawsuit from a debt buyer.  They may have a debt collector calling their neighbors or calling co-workers illegally to collect the debt.  They may be experiencing illegal voicemails or just good old fashion harassment that is illegal under both Alabama state law as well as the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA).

Finally, we have clients who are dealing with errors on their credit reports.  Sometimes this is from the terrible problem of identity theft.  Sometimes it is just plain false information on their credit reports.  A good percentage of our clients come to us having already disputed with the credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, Innovis, TransUnion, etc) and they are now trying to figure out what to do with the results of investigation which shows the false account still on their credit reports.  Finally, we don't have as many of these as we used to (companies got tired of being sued and decided to fix their systems) but some clients have been sued on a collection account, they win the collection suit, but the debt collector still reports them as owing money on their credit reports.

We have other types of consumer issues - whether lemon law, or fraud in an insurance context, or many other types but the three categories of cases listed above will give you an idea of what we deal with most often. 

WHAT TYPE OF CLIENTS DO YOU HELP?

Primarily folks who are dealing with those three types of cases listed above.  Our clients run the range from teen agers to clients in their 80s.  Some are struggling very much financially while others live in million dollar homes and make six figure salaries.  The common thread is that all of our clients have been mistreated and have sought our advice on how and when to take action to stop the wrongful conduct and compensate our clients for what they have gone through. 

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO BECOME A CONSUMER PROTECTION LAWYER? 

The short answer is we can make a tremendous amount of difference in the lives of our clients while we make a good living.  We are running a business so we have to make enough money to pay our bills and prosecute our cases.

Lots of litigation can provide a living but it is so rewarding to have someone come into our office distressed over a bad situation and explain how we can turn the situation around.  For example, someone is sued by a debt buyer.  They think they will have to pay out thousands of dollars to the debt buyer.  After we explain that debt buyers typically have no proof that they own the debt and therefore can't win at trial, you can see the person start to relax and regain hope.  Then after the trial when the debt buyer loses, that hope turns to amazement.  Then if the debt buyer does not correct the credit reports and we sue the debt collector and the debt collector finally corrects the credit reports and pays our client money, the amazement turns to joy.  What was a very bad situation (being sued by a company that does not own the debt) is turned into something where our client is paid money for having to go through this.  Seeing a client's face after a jury finds in her favor is a wonderful feeling.  Obviously every case does not turn out this way but we enjoy the challenge and the reward (financial, emotional, etc) that comes from helping our clients turn a bad situation into a good situation.

We get great joy out of seeing clients who are able to put a "period mark" on a painful time in their life and get a fresh start.  Sometimes the victories are small . . . sometimes they are big.  A small victory may be simply winning a small claims debt buyer lawsuit.  Or getting a debt collector to leave our client alone and pay $5000 for damages.  Other times the victories are more dramatic - perhaps a mortgage company completely walks away from a mortgage/note and sets aside the foreclosure after being caught committing fraud.  Or as happened in July, we tried a case against a debt collector - one that we would have settled for $7000 early on - and the jury came back with a six figure verdict including awarding $100,000 more in punitive damages that we even requested.  These moments - small and big - really bring us joy and satisfaction and we love knowing that we have made a difference in our clients' lives.

We also enjoy teaching and sharing our knowledge of the law in an understandable manner - this truly empowers our clients to know when they have had their rights violated and to be more careful in dealing with all of the scams that are out in the world.

As we state on our home page - our mission with this website (and ultimately with our practice) is to help consumers gain knowledge so they know when their rights are violated and then to motivate and help them take action.  Only when knowledge and action are combined will the abusive practices of so many debt collectors, credit reporting agencies and mortgage companies begin to ease up and slow down.

That's why we are consumer protection attorneys. 

If we can help you in Alabama, please call us at 205-879-2447 or fill out our contact page on our website.