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Expert: Creditwrench - 7/25/2008


Question
Hello,

My daughter got served with court papers by a collector, to pay an old medical bill from a hospital. The collector did not sent anything in writing, but claims they did. My daughter contacted the collector via phone and they want the whole amount by monday. My daughter did not refuse to pay and made clear she can't pay the whole amount in once.
The collector is stubborn. What are her rights?

Thank you
Michaela

Answer
What are her rights? In a way that depends on whose ox is getting gored.
As far as the debt collector is concerned the only right she has is the right to pay up before they file a lawsuit on her.

Of course, neither you nor her nor the law sees things quite that way.
It seems that it is not easy to find a comprehensive list of consumer's rights that one can refer to.

It looks like I might have to make up one of my own. Strangely I've never thought of doing that. Might be a great idea.

Of course, if she don't know her rights and don't enforce them then the only rights she has are what few the other party is willing to grant her. That isn't much.

My students all pretty much know their rights but they learn them as they go. They learn them by studying the law and that is probably the best way to do it. Don't need a law degree to do it.

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Creditwrench

Expertise

Debt Collections law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), federal law, how to properly answer court summons for collection cases, how to prepare federal cases against debt collectors, how to deal with debt collection phone calls.

Experience

I've been an active consumer advocate for more than 40 years and have helped hundreds of people win cases against debt collectors as well as helping them defeat demands for summary judgment lodged against them by banks, debt collectors and defeat mortgage foreclosures and keep their homes.

Education/Credentials
Paralegal courses for the most part.
I have been teaching people how to deal with judgments, mortgage foreclosures and other such problems both on and off the internet for many, many years. I am a Richard Cornforth information provider ever since 2000 and worked with many other organizations and causes since 1980. I was Oklahoma State Chairman for the nationwide drive to defeat the Constitutional Convention which was proposed by various factions within our federal government such as the Council of State Governments and the National Organization of State Governors who were working hard to organize a Constitutional Convention to be held in 1995 for the purpose of rewriting our American Constitution to be more acceptable to the United Nations. I worked with Senator Charles Duke of Colorado and Senator Don Rogers of California and many others across the nation to keep them from getting the number of delegate states required to lawfully hold a Con-Con and we were successful. I have worked with many other legislative issues in Oklahoma and have always been very successful.

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