Law offices acting as Debt Collector

check to see if this supposed law office is bonded in your state.also check the bar association website to see if this lawyer is even licensed to practice law.either way they must follow the FDCPA just as any collector should.if this law office is not bonded or licensed respond as you would to any bottomfeeder.send the DV and C&D letters.send them certified mail return receipt.

Law offices do not have to be licensed as a collection agency in Arizona, it is under the State regulations for collection agencies. However, like Paul said, check to see if they are licensed to practice law and I'm sorry to say that Jerold Kaplan Law office IS registered with the AZ Bar Association and thus will most likely file suit. I too have just started dealing with them. However, they are a junk credit card buyer and the credit card they are trying to collect from me for they would be the 4th owner... like the threads about fighting and debt validation... very unlikely they have a good paper trail... this law firm is a bottom feeder...

Do follow what others have said about a paper trail. In working with WW&R,who collect for LVNV, that is what made the difference.

They broke all sorts of violations with me. I kept notes,first of all, everytime they called the recorder or I spoke with them. I sent them a DV letter,no response. they called me again, so I sent another DV letter, a follow up letter. In this one I listed all the times they had violated the regulations, called, not responded to my DV, etc. Once they saw that I wasn't going to back down, and knew what I was talking about, they changed their tune--still were mad but backed down.

I will tell you that LVNV gests local lawyers here and files suit here quite often.

Good luck dealing with the ones you are dealing with-keep us posted..karen

I work for Jerold Kaplan Law Office. It is a true law firm with attorneys licensed in the the state of AZ. We file suits against people who refuse to pay their bill and sometimes we give way too much opportunity before we even do that. My company acts as the attorney for our client and we do not buy debt "for penny's on the dollar". When your attorney represents you does he pay off your debt for you? We are usually the last resort after your debt has gone through many collection agencies due to breach of contract or refusal to pay. We are bound by FDCPA and do follow the laws. Seriously, we are not the bad guys! Just make reasonable arrangements to pay your bill and it all goes away. It usually affects those that continue to refuse to pay. It boggles my mind that people get so indignant that a creditor wants their money back for services rendered or that they have to pay for extra fees and don't take into consideration that it costs money to have people constantly call you and remind you to pay back your debt.

As for debt settlement companies, regrettably, these companies don't tell you their dirty little secret of how as they give you hope, they are scamming money from you when you could have handled the creditor yourself. I know for a fact that Debt Settlement USA forces you to pay 14% of your total debt as a fee to them first before they make 1 phone call to your creditors to start negotiating on your debts. 14%!! If you have $30,000 in debt, that is $4200 to them first. By the time you pay that off that $4200, your account could be already sued and possibly wage garnished when you could have paid that directly with us and paid it off. My point is debt settlement companies have their own fee structure for making money off you and they don't care that much about your debt as much as you think they do. I've had negotiators play "hostage" with their your money and again the account goes further into the legal process. We have clients (creditors) that don't let us negotiate with debt settlement companies. Remember we are not obligated to work with them. If you cease us talking to you, we are not obligated to work with them, which means we're not in communication with anyone. They have no problem with taking your money and not making any attempts to settle or refusing to call you to tell you to make a payment to us since the settlement offer was not approved. We tell them that all the time and they rarely call the debtor to advise that a payment would prevent further action. A payment usually prevents an account from getting sued in the early stage or if already sued prevents from wage garnishment. I've heard story after story about from debtors who claim they were making faithful payments to them and we had not heard from them once and also the same hope-giving debt settlement co refused to give them their money back once they wanted to cancel the program. It's better to go with Money Management Intl that offer payments to ALL creditors at the same time. Payments are the key!! If you can make small payments until you have saved enough money to settle, that is how you will win you vs your debt war.

There are a lot of bad companies that make the collection industry look bad.
Not every collection agency or debt collection attorney is bad though. During these bad economic times, as we struggle (including myself) to take care of our financial responsibilities, we need to change our mind-set and focus solely on getting out of debt. Not fighting and hiding behind laws to see how you can get out of paying your debt. It's your debt...pay it! Remember that you signed a contract to pay your debt including all the consequences if you didn't. Please, on top of all that, don't forget your sense of moral obligation to pay as well.

Your firm does not buy the debts for pennies on the dollar but most of your clients do.

Rip off reports on Kaplan makes for interesting reading. Moral obligation my ass.

Dear Soap Lady,
That's too bad you don't have any moral obligations. I guess you can just go by the fact you have signed a contract. I have read those rip off reports too. I have also matched a few of those "reports" to their accounts and I have found embellishments to each story. Remember there are TWO sides to every story. Most of the time people are upset for being "found" and sued and use the internet as an outlet. Fortunately, we live in a country that allows us to do that.

SOAPLADY has forgotten more about ethical collecting than you will ever know ms.collector.so take the attitude elsewhere m,kay.btw being as this"LAW OFFICE"has no real reach beyond AZ your rehtoric sounds like typical humanoid stupidity.

So angry! Please get off your soap box.

It's funny that you make a baseless comment about your knowledge vs. my knowledge. Especially since you have no idea who I am.

well then stop trying to justify this JDB/RENT-A-LAWYER'S actions.a little story.a friend of mine was contacted six months ago.the usual JDB nonsense.they even stated the following."we can sue in AZ and commute the judgement to IL".what a load.btw after getting contacted by another friend who is a lawyer and told that they have 30 days per the FDCPA to file suit they"laid low".if they call again this lawyer friend will be the one suing.to close again this bottomfeeders reach is AZ and that's it.