New Lawsuit Against Debt Collector Portfolio Recovery For Calling At Work When Told Not To
New Lawsuit Against Debt Collector Portfolio Recovery For Calling At Work When Told Not To
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) says it is a violation of the law for a debt collector to call you at work when the collector knows your employer says that you cannot receive those types of calls at work.
Almost every employer has a policy against its employees getting personal business calls at work.
Especially in this age of cubicles and a lack of privacy.
Here are a few reasons.
First, when a collector continues to call you at work, this can result in you losing your job.
The FDCPA specifically says that abusive debt collection tactics cause the loss of jobs.
In 15 U.S.C. 1692(a) the law says, “There is abundant evidence of the use of abusive, deceptive, and unfair debt collection practices by many debt collectors. Abusive debt collection practices contribute to the number of personal bankruptcies, to marital instability, to the loss of jobs, and to invasions of individual privacy.”
Second, it is harassing.
You are at work.
To work.
Not to do personal business.
Especially personal business that will get you upset or distracted when you are supposed to be at work.
Third, it is unfair.
If one collector can call you at work, then they all can.
Imagine getting call after call at work.
And even after you tell them not to call you during work, one collector continues to do this.
Well that’s unfair to you and unfair to the other collectors who are following the law.
We recently filed a federal court lawsuit against Portfolio Recovery Associates (PRA) for violating this portion of the FDCPA among other parts of the law.
Over the years we have filed a large number of federal court lawsuits against PRA for violating the law.
Everything from suing on a debt that was about 5 years past the statute of limitations, not leaving proper disclosures in voicemails, blowing up a cell phone with robo dialed calls in violation of the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act), violating cease and desist letters, filing bogus lawsuits, false credit reporting, etc.
I don’t recall suing PRA before for continuing to call at work after being told not to so it will be interesting to see the defense offered by PRA.
Contact Us.
If you have experienced this with PRA, let us know by calling us at 205-879-2447.
You can let the receptionist you may have evidence for us to help in our PRA lawsuit.
Or you can always contact us through our “Contact Us” form on our website.
We appreciate your help!
PS — here is the text of the FDCPA (its the last part below) that says not to call at work when a collector has been told you can’t get these types of calls.
(a) Communication with the consumer generally
Without the prior consent of the consumer given directly to the debt collector or the express permission of a court of competent jurisdiction, a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt —
(1) at any unusual time or place or a time or place known or which should be known to be inconvenient to the consumer. In the absence of knowledge of circumstances to the contrary, a debt collector shall assume that the convenient time for communicating with a consumer is after 8 o’clock antemeridian and before 9 o’clock postmeridian, local time at the consumer’s location;
(2) if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt and has knowledge of, or can readily ascertain, such attorney’s name and address, unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to a communication from the debt collector or unless the attorney consents to direct communication with the consumer; or
(3) at the consumer’s place of employment if the debt collector knows or has reason to know that the consumer’s employer prohibits the consumer from receiving such communication.
This is 15 U.S.C. Section 1692d(a).