Can a creditor harrase my retired mother 500 miles away?

Asking them to stop calling over the phone is a waste of time and breath. Send them a DV letter along with a Cease and Desist letter, send this by CMRRR, if they continue to call after receiving the letters, you can file a lawsuit against them.

You might also consider legal action against your former consolidation company. In your place, I certainly would.

If they are trying to sue you already I don't see how that is a threat rather than a reality. I think you need to find some way to get this works out quickly. Do they have a current address and telephone # for you?

As long as they make a good faith attempt to serve you papers, depending on what county you live in, they can find ways around actually having to give you the papers personally and that could result in a default judgement against you.

It also sounds to me like improper venue--if they are trying to have you served in a place 500 miles from your actual place of residence, then that could mean that they are trying to sue you in the wrong place. I would pay close attention to that--they could be trying to get a default judgment against you in a county where they cannot even legally sue you. fdcpa allows that you can be sued either in your current county of residence or the county where the credit transaction originated. I would get on top of that ASAP--call the court clerk's office in your county and find out if there is a case pending against you there. If not, then they may be trying to pull an end-around on you.

Also, if you gave them your contact info and they are still harassing your family over this, then that is an FDCPA violation. They cannot contact a third party about your debt for any reason other than to try to locate you. Once they have your location, then they are not allowed to contact that third party without consent. Also, they are only allowed to contact that third party ONCE to try to locate you. They cannot keep calling over and over again.

Something else--it may just be the way you worded it, but I have never heard of a CA sending a sheriff to your house to send you a notice "to pay up or go to court". At that point, if they are serving you a notice, it is a summons and that means the court case has already been filed against you. Did the notice actually say "pay up this amount or youre going to court"?

Wouldn't the easiest way to get them to stop contacting your mother be to pay up? Hurtful language deleted per TOS--KSCornell

wouldnt the easiest way for you to get a clue be to read the post? He HAS been paying--he was in debt consolidation and was paying them on a regular basis, as he was supposed to be!

But to answer your question, no--he's been paying and they are still ILLEGALLY calling his family, AFTER they located him. The easiest way to stop that at this point is to sue their **** off like they deserve--clearly, paying on the debt didnt change anything.

[color=Red]****Adult term removed - Jason[/color]

No Nonsense Collector--
I remind you of our Terms of Service, which state that attacking language of any kind will not be tolerated, which is why I deleted the name you called the prior respondent. You have been warned, so kindly refrain from these attacks.