Debt Collection Attorney
When you are in debt either owing money on credit cards or are behind on your mortgage or both, you may at some point find yourself dealing with a debt collection attorney. You will not normally deal with one of these lawyers until your debt has been outstanding for a while and some legal action has already been taken against you.
In the first instance when you are behind on your payments, the financial institutions will typically contact you themselves via their collection services department and try to recover the money due. Depending on your circumstances and the size of the debt, they may allow you to restructure your loan or credit card debt thus making the payments more affordable. However, if you continue not to make payments or have simply ignored all correspondence from the bank or credit card company, they can then pass your debt over to their collection agency. These people are experts at recovering debt and as anyone who has dealt with them in the past will tell you, they will keep contacting you until they recover their money.
If the debt collector fails to collect the monies due, the next step is usually to take legal action. It is then that the debt collection attorney gets involved. The attorney will issue an attorney demand letter which sometimes prompts an answer from the debtor. But often it doesn’t and the case will go to court. All forms of debt collection are covered by the Fair Debt Collection Act so the Lawyers have to follow a certain legal procedure within the debt collection laws.
Often the debtor doesn’t even show up in court and judgment will be awarded against them in their absence. It is amazing how many people believe that if they ignore the action being taken by their creditors and bin the debt collection letter, it will all go away. Unfortunately life isn’t like that.
Even when a judgment has been made, people who owe the money can arrange with the debt collection attorney to repay the debt. These lawyers are authorized to enter into arrangements on their clients behalf. But be warned. The days of being able to pay an extra $20 or $30 on top of your normal payments have gone. The attorney will push for settlement of the entire debt within a realistic time scale usually 6 months. He will look at your file, calculate the payments that are due, including interest and charges, and advise you of what he is prepared to accept. Most law firms would require the first payment to be made on the day you enter into the arrangement. They are not what you call flexible!
If you do not or cannot enter into an arrangement with the debt collection attorney he will normally apply to the courts to amend the judgment. He will seek to obtain a garnishment order on your wages, your bank account or else see if he can get the local Sheriff to seize personal property including cars to a value equal to the debt outstanding.
It is best to try to negotiate as soon as possible when you find yourself falling behind on debts. The longer you leave the problem the worse it becomes. But sometimes we do not act rationally and people can panic. If you find yourself dealing with a debt collection lawyer, you should really do your best to find the funds required to meet the arrangement he offers. Do you really want your wages garnished or the Sheriff coming into your home? Try everything to come up with the cash. See, if you can work extra hours, sell some of your belongings on EBay or a similar site. Yes it may be painful but not as bad as when you work a forty or fifty hour week and your wages don’t reflect that.
Whatever you do never threaten a debt collection attorney with the fact that you will go bankrupt. Most attorneys have heard this threat so often, they are more likely to give you the name of a bankruptcy attorney rather than wipe out or forgive your debt. They know that most people will not go bankrupt through choice as it is expensive, time consuming and can cause issues at work. So try to work with the debt collection attorney. Show him he is dealing with a reasonable individual and you may just find that you can work a way out of this debt mess together.
