Courts Could See Uniform Account Info in Mass.

Massachusetts collection attorneys are taking steps to create a uniform approach to the account information that is presented when taking an alleged debtor to court under a proposal that could be approved for the state.

The proposal would require that the name of the originator of account, the account number, the date of the last payment or when the account went delinquent, and the account balance would be provided by attorneys acting for collection agencies.

The proposal was formulated by a panel that was created after revelations in the Boston Globe newspaper last year of abuse of consumers in the debt collection process by attorneys. The 25-member panel included judges, magistrates, consumer advocates, attorneys, and representatives from the National Association of Retail Collection Attorneys.

The proposal will be reviewed by the Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court with public hearings to follow, said Adam J. Olshan, an attorney with Howard Lee Schiff in East Hartford, Conn., and a member of the panel. Olshan is a past president of NARCA. The proposal also calls for assurances that the correct defendant in a case get served with papers.

Olshan said similar proposals are in the works for Michigan and New York, and that Connecticut and California are considering the idea.

Olshan was speaking on a panel at the Federal Trade Commission’s workshop this week on the collection industry. Consumer advocates at the workshop contended that information on the debt and debtor can be sparse or even nonexistent when defense attorneys show up in court to defend the alleged debtor.

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