Letters to the Editor - Fighting unethical debt collectors - Fighting unethical debt collectors

                When I read the November Camden News, I was shocked to see a letter to the editor suggesting that people should contact me about the need for laws to "protect us from unethical debt collectors." I thought everyone knew I was the leading legislator in Minnesota for protecting consumers on these issues.  I've been on television and in the newspapers regarding my bills and was even invited to Washington, D.C. a couple months ago to speak at the conference of national debt collector associations.  The person who organized the conference referred to me as the leading consumer protection legislator in the country on these issues.

    There has been an explosion of new collection techniques in the last decade where fraud and misrepresentation has become commonplace.  The most onerous, however, is the new phenomenon where companies buy debts from credit card companies or other creditors who have given up on collection and written off the debt.  The biggest atrocities committed by these debt buyers are that they sue people who merely have a similar name to the debtor, they sue for vastly larger amounts than are actually owed, and/or they sue after federal and state statutes prohibit collection because the debt is so old. There are also many instances where the debtors never have a chance to defend themselves because they are not served with any papers notifying them of the suit (often intentionally), and vast numbers of suits where the collector has no proof whatsoever of the amount owed, or even of the identification of the person being sued. Our court system in Minnesota doesn't even require the collector to provide proof in most cases where judgment is entered. Debt buyer companies pay a few cents on the dollar for uncollected accounts and some of them receive 300 percent profits. Moreover, generally there is so little information given to the debt buyers that they can't really establish any proof of the amount of the debt or who the debtor is if it's contested, so they rely on people just defaulting because of the cost of hiring an attorney to defend themselves.

    The letter writer cited the fact that some collectors go after the relatives of deceased debtors.  The only company in the nation specializing in that practice is a Minnesota company.  I believe it's deplorable to go after grieving widows or children to pay a debt for which they have no legal obligation. On the other hand, there are some cases where a creditor would have the right to start an estate file for the deceased debtor and make a claim for some of the estate assets that are over the amounts that are exempt for family members. My proposed legislation will protect the family members but still allow for those circumstances where the creditor would have the legal right to use probate court to collect against some of the estate's non-exempt assets that are transferred from the decedent to the decedent's heirs and beneficiaries.

    Creditors are also getting courts to put people in jail merely for not responding to legal papers they probably don't understand.  Another part of my proposed legislation will try to curtail that practice and protect debtors, while at the same time not taking away all the necessary rights of the creditor to collect.

    I have been the leader on this type of consumer protection legislation since the issue arose in Minnesota and I am working with Legal Aid, as well as debt collectors, to try to fashion legislation that will protect consumers while still allowing legitimate enforcement of debt collection by creditors.  I'm also the only legislator asked to speak on this issue to attorneys for their continuing legal education courses. And I participated in a recent press conference with Senator Al Franken wherein he announced he was introducing a bill in Congress which was mostly modeled after my legislative proposals.

    As always, I welcome letters, emails or phone calls regarding problems you encounter, ideas you might have for solutions, or just plain questions on how to deal with state bureaucracy.

Joe Mullery,

State Representative District 58A