These days, nearly everyone has some form of debt, whether it is credit card debt, a mortgage payment, or a car loan. Sometimes, unforeseen circumstances arise in life which prevents many from paying their bills on time. For example, maybe you were laid off from your job? Or, maybe you were injured and cannot work? Regardless of your situation, not paying your debts on time will inevitably lead to collection calls. As many of you know, some of these collectors can be more aggressive and call more frequently than others. Thus, the question becomes: when are do these collection calls rise to the level of illegal harassment?
Harassment under The Florida Consumer Collection Practices Act (“FCCPA”) and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”)
The FDCPA (federal statute) and the FCCPA (state statute) are the two statutes which protect consumers from harassing collection calls in the state of Florida. Under 15 U.S.C. §1692d(5) of the FDCPA, a debt collector is prohibited from causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously with intent to annoy, abuse, or harass any person at the called number. Under Florida Statute 559.72(7) of the FCCPA, creditors and debt collectors shall not “willfully communicate with the debtor…with such frequency as can reasonably be expected to harass the debtor…” Legally, collectors have the right to contact you and attempt to collect a debt that is owed. To that effect, there is an abundance of case law across the country which states even receiving multiple calls a day, in and of itself, does not violate either statute cited above. There has to be action on behalf of the debtor in order for collection calls to be considered “harassing”. The easiest way for a debtor to convert legal collection calls into illegal collection calls is to verbally tell collectors to stop calling- yes, it is that easy. As almost everything else in the law, there is no black-and-white rule as to how many times a debtor has to request a collector to stop calling before it is considered harassment. Again, collectors have the right to call and attempt to collect an owed debt. From my experience, I can tell you it needs to be at least three (3) times in order to have a viable claim. Debtors need to be able to show a potential judge or jury that they repeatedly told a collector to stop calling, and the collector refused to do so. In a previous blog, I explained why it is very important to document each call from a collector- you want to have concrete facts, rather than generalizations as to when this conduct occurred.
If you are receiving collection calls, you need to speak with a consumer protection attorney. Almost all attorneys will provide a no-cost consultation to evaluate your case. Undoubtedly, you will be advised to start logging calls in an effort to build a case against a harassing collector. I deal with these types of cases on a daily basis. If you are receiving collection calls, call me or simply email me at jon@berkmyer.com and tell me what has happened.
