What Now?: Missing the Miranda Disclosure

It's going to happen. At some point -- hopefully accidentally, but sometimes through manipulation or disregard -- one of your collectors is going to skip giving the Miranda Disclosure.

The Miranda Disclosure -- “This is an attempt to collect a debt. Any information will be used for that purpose. If you dispute the validity of this debt you have 30 days to notify us of such" -- is a requirement of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. It's also a Strict Liability Violation -- which means your agency is almost always on the hook.

We can't get your collectors to give the Miranda Disclosure -- but we can help you strategize what to do next when you find out the disclosure wasn't given.

This What Now? report will: 

• Give you a background and history as to why the Miranda Disclosure is necessary
  
• Give you some best practices to include in your Policies and Procedures manuals regarding both verbal and written Miranda Disclosures
  
• Provide strategies around how best to address the issue with:
  
• Collectors
  
• Supervisors
  
• Trainers
  
• Your agency, in general
  
• Share the unique perspective of a Consumer Attorney!
  

Our goal is to take as much of the sting out of a Miranda Disclosure as possible.

Product: PDF Download

Pages: 49 pp

Published: 14 August 2014

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: The Mini-Miranda
   
2. Best Practices: Miranda Disclosures
   
3. Miranda Disclosure: A Legal Exception?
   
4. Miranda Disclosure: Voicemails
   
5. I Forgot to Say the Miranda Disclosure: What Now?
   
6. How to Address: Collector
   
7. How to Address: Supervisor
   
8. How to Address: Training
   
9. How to Address: Policies and Procedures and the Bona Fide Error Defense
   
10. Bona Fide Error Defense in Action
    
11. Appendix A: State Requirements
    
12. Appendix B: Miranda Disclosure Violations – a Plaintiff Attorney’s Perspective
    
13. Appendix C: Relevant Court Cases