Filing frivolous FDCPA lawsuits

There are many so called FDCPA experts on the internet today who will tell you that what you need to do to get out of debt is to file lawsuits on debt collectors trying to
collect from you.

One of the favorite FDCPA mechanisms that is advocated is the claim that they have provided false information about you or that they are unlicensed to collect in your state. The number of excuses one can find to file on debt collectors is almost endless.

But there is one fallacy the gooroos never mention and that is that filing such lawsuits isn't going to change the fact that you can still be sued by the debt collector or the creditor. They sometimes also tell you that you can get $1,000 per violation which is basically true but the only way to get the "per violation" angle working for you is to file a separate lawsuit on them for each and every violation. Now then, lets look at the practical aspect of the situation. Let us imagine that you caught a debt collector providing false information to the credit bureaus so you sue him 3 times for that. Once for each credit bureau. Since your cases will be likely to come up before the same judge you run the risk that the judge will see through your ploy and take adverse action to put a stop to the nonsense. That can be done by filing a sanction on you to put a stop to it. Those sanctions can run anywhere from as little as maybe $12,000 to as much as maybe $50,000 and if you are sanctioned you will have to put up the cash money before you can get out of jail.

Even if you win, you will still only have won a maximum of $3,000 plus your filing fees which would be around $750.00.

Or maybe your state is one of the states that requires debt collectors to be licensed and you caught the debt collector violating the law. You can't file a state level lawsuit against him because if state licensure laws are violated it is the state that is the injured party and not you. So you have to file in federal court using FDCPA and the misinformation portion of the statute to nail him.

Once again, the filing fee applies and so does the $1,000 award limitation. Makes no difference whether you win or not, the debt is not cancelled and is still every bit as collectable as it ever was. If the debt collector can comply with the law in your state he may very well elect to remedy his problem and then still sue you after having obtained the required license. If your debt is more than $1,000 then you will have only delayed the pain if you are lucky. If the debt collector can cure the problem in a short period of time, say 30 days or so then that is about all you will have bought with your lawsuit.

If the creditor still owns the debt you can rest assured it will be the creditor who will file the lawsuit against you and all that the creditor needs to do is find an attorney willing to file the suit and lay it on you. Your lawsuit against the debt collector will make absolutely no difference at all.

If the debt collector has bought the debt from the creditor and cannot or chooses not to comply with your state licensure laws then all he has to do is sell it to some other debt collector or he might assign it to another collector to collect for him.
If that happens you will probably get yet another adverse report on your credit report before it is all said and done. But rest assured that somebody is going to end up filing a lawsuit on you no matter how many FDCPA lawsuits you might try to file on the debt collectors.

In other words, you can file FDCPA lawsuits against debt collectors who break the law but in the final analysis it will do you little or no actual good to do so. While such advice as is to be found on many internet message boards telling you to sue your creditors, most of it is little more than a fools hope. There are much better ways to deal with the situation and get the same thing done in a much more effective manner.


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