what would you do?

You cant sue the new CA collecting...they have no clue what went on before they got the account. Send them a copy of the letter the previous attorney sent you and tell them to blow off. Contact the previous agency and tell them they need to close the account properly.

You can always sue anyone... the question is whether your reasons are supported by law.

Timely DV letters dont establish a period for debt validation (unless you live in Texas), and carry with them the statutory requirement that the debt collection cease collection activities until such time as they provide the requested debt validation. If a debt collector no longer has debt collection authority, they wont be conducting collection activities. DV letters addressed to one who has collection authority only apply to them. If a new debt collector is assigned collection authority, either through the creditor or by purchase of the debt, that starts the process anew. They must provide new dunning notice within 5 days of initiation of communication with the consumer, and the consumer has DV rights to force cessation of collection as long as it is sent within 30-days of their dunning notice.

If a new debt collector has come into the picture, then the old DV requests do not apply to them. They can conduct collection activities until such time as they receive a DV request from the consumer.

Stating to a debt collector that lack of validation will be assumed as estalishing the debt to be paid in full is just that.... a statement. There is no statutory basis for such a presumption.

Consumers are permitted to require cessation of collection activities in one or two ways..... for a limited time by sending a DV letter, or if desired, on an unlimted basis by sending a cease communication letter under FDCPA 605(c). Either or both of those options are available. If not exercised, the debt collector has the right to conduct their business.

ok, lets take this from the top, as it seems to me that everyone's missing something here.

Quote:

That is correct ... the new letter is on behalf of the collector that sent me the letter stating the account is considered paid in full. In other words, it list him as the owner of the debt. It looks like he did either sell it off, or hired them to try and collect for him.

My guess would be, he thought i would no longer have his letter after 10 months...well I do.

So, "what would you do"?. Should I file suit agianst him...send a letter to new agency, or call him and give him a chance to make it right?

either sue the attorney who sent you the PIF letter,or send him an intent to sue letter certified mail return receipt.you hit it right on the head as he thought you either lost,missplaced,or just didn't keep the letter.he did violate the FDCPA by assigning it to this attorney after giving you the PIF.the 10 months says that to me as i have heard of maybe 1-2 months the collector doesn't close the account properly as SOAPLADY stated,but 10-12 months is him doing this on the assumption you don't have that letter.prove him wrong.

No matter what you decide to do, you can take comfort in the fact that they were never able to validate this debt; therefore, you won't end up paying a dime toward it.

Since the first attorney violated the FDCPA by continuing their collection activities (10 months later), you have the option of taking whatever action you wish.

You'll find differing opinions on any forum; some people would simply send the second attorney copies of your previous correspondence, and request that they close the account and discontinue their collection efforts. Others, however, would contact the AG and/or FTC to report the FDCPA violations. And then there are those who would be more aggressive and contact an attorney to see if a lawsuit is justified.

So, it really depends on how much time you have, how aggravated you are by the entire situation, and what damages there are. Again, what's most important is that you're not going to have to pay this debt. Now, you can decide what works best for you and act accordingly.

One final note - great job in keeping all of the previous correspondence for your records. Make sure you also keep any future correspondence. Have a good evening!

Hello All,
Thanks to all of you for some good answers to my question. Here is an update on the situation.

I did speak to an attorney who is interested in looking at all the documents. He believes 100% that they are in violation (we knew that), so there may still be a suit filed.

Today I did receive a letter from the second agency stating that they are resinding their previous collection attempt, as requested by the first.
However, I do show they made an inquiry on my credit report that I am going to insist that they have removed. :lol:

Thanks again for all the help.

if the attorney who was assigned the debt doesn't remove the entry.you go after them as well.i still would pursue the suit against the idiot who gave you the PIF as chances are they will try to assign it to someone else.stop the cycle.you have proof here now use it.

Hello again it's me with an update.

As you can see from the previous post, I was at my whits ends with collection agencies on a debt that was not mine. Recently I posted I had contacted an attorney to sue but we decided since the "latest" (at the time) agency wrote it off as PIF, we would not pursue...well things have changed!

He is a quick run down.

It started as: Received a letter from Allied i owed on a credit card (not mine) so I requested DV.
Now this is where its has been~~~~

Requested DV's from and never received:
Allied---2008
Resurgent---2009
Weltman-Weinberg and Reis---2009
Praxis--2010
Msw Capitol---2010
Stephen I Michaels--2011
Midland--2012

As stated earlier in my post~~ I received a letter from MSW Capitol that the debt was "PIF" as he could not validate. Then I received a collection notice on his behalf from Stephens & Michaels. I called Mr. Whipple at MSW and told him of the letter he had send a year earlier, he said "oh it must have gotten through the cracks" (yea right) I will take care of it.

So, I then received a letter from Stephens & Michaels saying he (Mr. W);) had called them and the debt was wrote off as paid in full and no further action would be taken.

Low and behold I get a collection letter from Midland on 2/21/12. This time I am done no more nice guy. Through a few phone calls I found an attorney in Indiana that specializes in this area of law. We have an appointment Monday to get the ball rolling...After i gave him the run down about what has happened, he jumped on it. So, Maybe, it will finally be over....cha-ching!

And the lawsuit has began.....5 of the above will be served. I will keep you posted.:D

Why would you summon 5 agencies? The only violation I can see if by MSW Capitol. If the assigned CA's had no knowledge of the agreement made between you and MSW Capitol, they would have no liability.

It will do you no good to sue the others anyways because the law carries a one-year statute of limitations. You cannot sue a debt collector now for something they did in 2008.....this is from the FDCPA, section 813, part 2:

[QUOTE](d) An action to enforce any liability created by this title may be brought in any appropriate United States district court without regard to the amount in controversy, or in any other court of competent jurisdiction, within one year from the date on which the violation occurs.[/QUOTE]Youre simply out of luck if you think you could sue them all, even if they did violate the FDCPA. But as it stands, you have not shown that they all did break the law in the first place. Not validating a debt is only illegal if they continue to try to collect from you after they signed for your DV request letter. They can sell it to a debt buyer and thats perfectly legal to do.

The five that are being sued are all within the SOL of 2 years trying to collect.....they all violated by trying to collect without validation.
I have a debt attorney on this who is very well known in my state, that is handling everything. The case has been filed with the courts as of last week. He is only going after the JDB's for the last two years. Although I have documentation for the last 7. ;)

Did they continue collection activies after you sent a DV letter? I am still not understanding why you are suing them.

Attornies DO make mistakes....a lot of them in fact. He can file against them but they can just turn around and quote the SOL...waste of the courts time.

The SOL in my state is 2 years...thats why he can go after some of them ,but not all of them. Yes there was continuous collection activity, because each time it was sold off, the previous collection agency was listed as the debt owner on the new collection notice except the last one.
The last letter I got was from Midland on behalf of the "original" debtor. There is no way that after this many attempts the original debtor has this debt back in their hands.

The attorney I have will not take a case unless there is a violation, as he only gets paid when we win. In other words, he will go after the CA"s for payment. He will not take a case unless he knows he will get paid ;).

The basics are: Midland is being sued to stop any further activity and prove the debt is from the original debtor. The other two are MSW & S&M's who will be in violations.

Hope this clears up what we are doing.

$1000 for you!!!!

unfortunately yes.bottomfeeders are idiots as well as scum,and as before think you don't have or missplaced the court docs.good thing is you are in a cycle where the idiots keep paying you.so enjoy it.

Have any of you ever heard of this?....... Someone wins ther FDCPA case, and several months later another CA gets it and tries to collect?

And now I have to see what we are going to do about this new cockroach coming out to try and collect on it...i tried to tell them that is was settled in court...he actually called me a liar. ok....we shall see.

Hello All,
Sorry I haven't given an update before now, but after a phone call tonight, I had to take the time and give updates: this is long...

Well first, I won my lawsuit. The courts only made the last CA pay, but the others are also held liable for any future collection attempts. So up until tonight I thought it was all over then......
I got a call on my cell phone (which i missed ) and they left a message. It was was from a "attornies" office of Smith
&Travis. The woman left me a message stating that she was collecting a debt and i quote her "unless they get a call back, I will be garnished, my car repo'ed, my bank account levied, my house repo'ed, and all my assets taken". So I called them back since I do not owe any credit card debts to find out what this is about.
The woman on the other end automatically started with (see above) threats. I asked her for the debt information,re: account number, creditor, amount etc. she refused and just kept talking over me...I then asked her to send me a letter so i could look into it, she again refused and said the only thing I will get is a sheriff at my work....so i just told her to get a life and hung up.
After a few minutes I decided to call back and try to talk to someone else. This is when I got a man on the line who was just as rude and wouldn't give me a chance to ask questions...I finally got anry and said if you do not give me more information I will just hang up. So he finally agreed to give me the account info, but not until he said his threats of: "you have refused to pay this debt per other phone call, therfore we can and will, garnish your wages, levi you bank account, seize your assets and take your home car and all possessions....." but before he could fcontinue I cut him off and said just give me the information.
Lo and behold, it was the account I had won my lawsuit on. After hearing the account number, I informed him that that account was proven in court not mine and a lawsuit won, he said and i quote "you are lying as we bought this account from the credit card company" I then told him no you didn't it had already been in (6) CA hands...he then cut me off and she no it hasn't we are the only ones who have ever owned it...I told him I was looking at my court file with all the documents and he again called me LIAR!...yes that is the word he used ...really now? So , I finally got mad screamed at him to sue me...and hung up. And yes, this conversation was recorded. I will be calling my attorney tomorrow to find out the next step.
This company evidently don't know the laws based on the threats they made to me on the phone.

Sorry so long,,,,, :)