01.07.10
The FDCPA and the Big Bang
Welcome to our Blog.
We have to start somewhere. I believe it was Stephen Hawkins who pointed out that nothing can be relevant which occurred before the Big Bang. We have no intention of going back to that Big Bang. Our Big Bang started on September 20, 1977 when Congress enacted Public Law 95-107 – better known as the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act or, simply the FDCPA. The FDCPA imposed a code of conduct on debt collectors attempting to collect debts from consumers. After articulating the devastating effects on families and finances from unchecked debt collector abuses, Congress identified three goals it sought to obtain by adopting the statute:
- “to eliminate abusive debt collection practices by debt collectors”
- “to insure that those debt collectors who refrain from using abusive debt collection practices are not competitively disadvantaged”
- “to promote consistent State action to protect consumers against debt collection abuses”
Congress also empowered those who are the targets of wrongful debt collector activities — that is, consumers — to enforce the law. Specifically, a consumer can recover (A) any actual damages, (B) up to an additional $1,000, and (C) their attorney’s fees and litigation costs. Unfortunately, more than thirty years have passed since the FDCPA’s adoption and many debt collectors continue to violate the law. We suspect that one reason is that too few consumers understand their rights and, therefore, do not seek out attorneys experienced with the FDCPA. Consequently, our intention is for this Blog to be a source of reliable information about the FDCPA.
Mr WordPress said,
January 7, 2010 at 12:57 pm
Hi, this is a comment.
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