State Launching Major Crackdown on Debt Collectors
Political rivals take their battle to the next level, offering simultaneous proposals to crack down on the ARM industry in the state of Florida.
Officials in Florida announced Tuesday that they are launching aggressive enforcement programs targeting illegal debt collection practices and recommending changes to state law that focus on accounts receivable management firms.
Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum and state Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink separately announced that their offices are proposing aggressive changes to state law to combat “abusive debt collectors.”
McCollum said that he wrote leaders in Florida’s legislature proposing legislative language would make certain debt collector practices a "per se" violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, providing a clear basis for pursuing civil litigation.
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“As Attorney General, I am willing to go above and beyond what the law currently requires so that people who have complained about abusive practices by debt collectors may finally get some relief,” said McCollum in a statement.
Sink offered a bulleted list of proposals for legislators centered on the handling of consumer complaints against debt collection agencies:
- Reducing the number of complaints needed to refer an abusive collector to the State Attorney or Attorney General, and eliminating a time period required, as opposed to the current requirement of five complaints in one year.
- Implementing stronger penalties against abusive or non-responsive debt collectors, such as imposing higher fines and cease and desist orders.
- Changing the complaint form to make it easier for a consumer to file a complaint.
- Updating the way resolved complaints are tracked by the Office of Financial Regulation to better understand repeat offenders and trends.
“There are clear, commonsense changes that are needed to better protect Florida’s consumers against these abusive debt collector practices,” said Sink. “I will continue to work in a collaborative way in order to put real teeth in the law and crack down on abusive debt collectors.”
Sink noted that her proposals stemmed from a meeting held last week between Office of Financial Regulation (OFR) Commissioner Tom Cardwell and the Chiefs of Staff from the CFO’s and Attorney General’s offices.
McCollum and Sink have been embroiled in a public battle over debt collection complaints for weeks. The Orlando Sentinel sparked the skirmish after a series of reports detailed the abusive practices of some debt collectors and the state's failure to accurately track complaints against collectors and stop the practices.
McCollum and Sink are considered to be the front-runners in the Florida Governor’s race, the election for which is scheduled for November 2010.
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Comments
Comment from Anonymous on November 3, 2009 at 12:08PM EST
How about we crack down on the number of websites that tell consumers to file a complaint regardless of whether there was an actual violation or not???
Comment from anonymous on November 3, 2009 at 12:17PM EST
How about we crack down on the number of extortion suits??
Comment from Anonymous on November 3, 2009 at 12:21PM EST
Unfortunately, a few bad eggs paints a dirty picture for the industry...
Comment from Anonymous on November 3, 2009 at 12:33PM EST
How about you stop extorting your collectors forcing them to break laws just so you have a larger bonus check.
Comment from paybill on November 3, 2009 at 12:39PM EST
typical election rhetoric. Of course, they don't want to put their "complaints" in perspective as to the number of Florida debtors that have been contacted vs. the number that complained. They probably also don't want to get any sense of how many of those complaints are actually valid. Those facts might get in the way of campaign rhetoric that appeals to the masses.
Comment from Anonymous on November 3, 2009 at 12:48PM EST
How about you stop extorting your collectors forcing them to break laws just so you have a larger bonus check.
Comment from Anonymous on November 3, 2009 at 12:58PM EST
Where is the focus on "why" some collectors cross over into the forbidden range? I suspect if debtors who lie when actually and fairly contacted were held accountable under the collection laws, many of the issues would disappear.
As they say in court, to reach a fair decision do not both sides need to have clean hands?
Comment from Messenger on November 3, 2009 at 1:14PM EST
Whatever others may do, you are bound to pay your debts. And unless your creditor voluntarily consents to defer the time of payment, you are bound to pay him at any sacrafice.
As for Attorney Generals, they should start with their own business and moral practices. The last time I checked - they had some corruption and infidelity issues.
Comment from TheOwl on November 3, 2009 at 1:17PM EST
It does seem that the ARM industry continues to have problems. These sort of problems don't just jump up and bite, they take years and years of incredibly poor practices to rise to the level of scrutiny that the ARM people are getting. This is not the fault of the alleged debtor.
Comment from Illlinois on November 3, 2009 at 2:12PM EST
Not to sound like a broken record, but......
A debt collector that has documentation showing the debt is valid, documentation verifying the debt balance, and confirmation that the debt can be legally collected (not in BK, out of statute, etc) would have little to concern themselves with.
Collections with only a spread sheet and a phone number should have a lot to be concerned with, and rightfully so.
Comment from Anonymous on November 3, 2009 at 2:49PM EST
Applause to FL! Now if more states follow suit we may have a level playing field.
Comment from settledinfull on November 3, 2009 at 7:01PM EST
Florida is a debtor friendly state. Safe haven for debtors. You can be a total piece of work and all you have to do is file a complaint against the agency that called you about your bill. Florida is upside-down right now one of the most indebted states in the country. More people are this comment excludes the decent people of Florida.....you know who you are. Live up to your adult responsibilities and pay your bills and you won’t have to hear the truth. And you won’t get the calls.
Comment from legal eagle on November 3, 2009 at 2:29AM EST
why don't consumers start owning uo to there responsibility for example when you sign for a auto loan and there is a auto deficancey left over pay what you are supposed to pay instead going out and getting a another loan and telling lies to other auto people saying they never had a repo and pay your responsiblity of the default instead of making stupid excuses for example asking for paperwork when u had the orig contract when you signed ur contract and stop ignoring your repo letters and grow up america or we will lose more incomes and more jobs if we learned to own up to our bad credit wake up america and pay your debts so we can get out of this recession we can do it just own up to your mistakes!!!!
Comment from Anonymous on November 4, 2009 at 12:22PM EST
Ilive in Florida, work in collections, and I have been victimized by collection agencies. Yes there are firms out there who operate legally, there are firms that operate illegally. The same thing is true with people. Most people do pay their bills, or if they can't will own up to what they owe. There are some people who refuse to accept the consequences of their actions and their debts.
Currently I have 1 CA who calls at all hours of the night and day threatening to sue me for a debt I didn't take out. This same CA contacts me at work and contacts my family and neighbors despite written notice for them to cease and desist. This CA is based out of the Jacksonville area. I beleive this type of CA is more likely to be a target than responsible law abiding ARM firms.
Comment from DONALD DALY on November 4, 2009 at 1:13PM EST
THIS IS SIMPLY MORE "BUSY WORK" FOR OFFICIALS/GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES TO WASTE TIME ON, SURE BEATS WORKING FOR A LIVING. THEY DON'T KNOW HOW TO ENFORCE THE LAWS ON THE BOOKS NOW, SO WHAT IS DRAFTING NEW VERSIONS GOING TO BENEFIT? IF THEY WOULD SIMPLY EMPLOY SOME COMMON SENSE EVALUATING THE COMPLAINTS THEY WOULD SEE THAT A GREAT NUMBER OF "VICTIMS" ARE USING THE GOVERMENT AS A SHIELD AND TYING THE OFFIALS UP IN KNOTS DRAFTING MORE MEANINGLESS LEGISLATION THAT HAS NO MORE HOPES OF BEING EFFECTIVE THAN WHAT IS ON THE BOOKS NOW. I JUST WONDER IF THE DAY WILL/HAS COME WHEN IT WILL BE AGAINST SOME LAW TO EXPECT TERMS OF A CONTRACT BE HONORED.
Comment from F-FL. on November 6, 2009 at 1:13PM EST
Not surprising to see new legislation being presented during a political race especially in a debtor friendly state like FL. The problem as stated by many allready is that consumers are all looking for a free ticket out of there debt. I am amazed daily at the debtors i talked to who really couldn't care less they have taken thousands from the bank and have no desire to pay it back and really don't care at all. Honest people who pay back what they borrowed seem to be long gone these days and everyione is looking for a handout. All i hear anymore is the bank got a bailout why cant i and well the bank got a bailout because you mr. dishonest debtor didnt pay back your loan.
Comment from stevenw on November 10, 2009 at 12:24PM EST
I don't think the debt collectors or telemarketers have much to worry about. They OWN Florida. I've lived in a number of states in my life, and the one thing that amazed me about Florida when I moved here is the avalanche of telemarketing and phony debt collection calls I started receiving almost immediately. I've never experienced anything like it anywhere else...and I'm on the national and Florida "Do Not Call" lists--they just don't care what the law says. But as to reform in Florida, the telemarketers and debt collectors spread too much money around Tallahassee for any chance of that happening any time soon.
Comment from Anonymous on November 17, 2009 at 10:42PM EST
Florida has a long history of get-rich-quick scam operations. South Florida is probably the boiler-room center of the nation, other than maybe Las Vegas. Jacksonville is still home to several debt collectors who routinely impersonate police officers, rivaling anything out of Buffalo. Florida's reputation can only benefit from cleaning up this mess.