Whataburger Suing Debt Collection Company For Harassing Its Employee At Work

thats funny my attorney sued them and one............

I love how everybody starts fighting amongst themselves on here instead of addressing the article. lol Everyone's an armchair lawyer all of a sudden.

Oh, and it's "COULDN'T care less", not "could care less". Think about what you say - if someone could care less, how does that describe the incredible extent to which they lack concern? If someone couldn't care less, that leaves absolutely no room for them to care any less than they do.

There are countless examples of expressions people say incorrectly just like this. Use your brains a little bit, people. Oh man, another one is "should of"... WTF? SHOULD OF? What the hell are you actually saying when you say SHOULD OF? Makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. It's like people think these words just magically go together to make phrases that work, with zero regard for the individual words that make up the phrase. Wake up!

Scott...where did you get your jailhouse law degree. The FDCPA states that a penalty of $1,000 *PER VIOLATION* can be assessed. So, that means if they call at 8:00 am on Monday ($1,000) and then again at 3:00 pm on Monday ($1,000) there are two violations...therefore $2,000! Also punitive damages can be requested (whether they get them or not is another story) but don't go out on a limb and say that the FDCPA doesn't allow it. That's nonsense!

Nowhere...I repeat NOWHERE does it state a maximum of $1,000 for ALL violations. What it states, and I quote from the act, "(a) Except as otherwise provided by this section, any debt collector who fails to comply with any provision of this title with respect to any person is liable to such person in an amount equal to the sum of --

(1) any actual damage sustained by such person as a result of such failure"

PLEASE NOTE WHERE IT SAYS, "...any debt collector who fails to comply with any provision of this title..." That means that if they fail to comply with any provision at 8:00 am and then again at 5:00pm, they have failed to comply TWICE!!!

The misconception is all yours. Apology accepted!

Whatever.. . Good Going Whataburger.. and I will make it a point to drop by Whataburger, again, real soon.

I'm a retired Texas lawyer who worked my way through a semester of law school as a collector and skip tracer, have done some collection practice, particularly cases where rich debtors lied, fraudulently transferred or otherwise denied and hid assets, etc.  helped clients set up collection agencies and tried hard to keep them and their collectors within the law and common decency, which is hard if, typically, they are on commission, and have represented a lot of debtors in bankruptcy etc. to stop collection harassment.  I've also been stiffed out of some hard-earned fees and had misfortunes that left me the victim of collection abuses by NCO and many others.
Unfortunately, you are right.  The FDCPA and Texas law are not at all fair to debtors.  No debtor can afford to file and prosecute, and no lawyer can afford to take an FDCPA/Texas Consumer Credit Code case, no matter how outrageous the collectors' conduct, or the resulting injury and damages, which I have known to include wrecking marriages, driving wives and children to attempt suicide, etc., because of the $1,000.00 damage limit, which also effectively limits the attorneys' fees legally available or which you can get a judge or jury to award.   All the many abusive calls after the first one are "freebies" for the collection agency.  It is actually practically impossible to prove that the collection agency itself, much less the creditor or purchaser of the actual or alleged debt for pennies, something I am informed and believe they do, particularly debts suit on which is barred by the applicable statute of limitations, knew and authorized the individual collector, who is judgment proof even if you could identify him, which is typically impossible, authorized and directed or permitted the abuse, and, since the collection agencies operate as independent contractors, they are well insulated from liability most of the time.  
If our federal or state elected officials of either party, and either party itself, gave a Continental hoot about vulnerable debtors, and were not paid off and in bed with the financial industry, their bag man lo and their pet jackals the collection agencies, they would have adopted their own expensive expert Bankruptcy Reform Commission's rather than the credit card industry's pet bankruptcy "reform" bill, which, with the exception of some liberals such as Ted Kennedy and Barack Obama with whom I typically disagree, Congress passed as a bipartisan bill, and would long  ago have adjusted the FDCPA and other laws for not only the official but the far higher cumulative rates of inflation, unemployment, under-employment, and falling real incomes of most people except the very rich, and the state legislatures would  have plugged the snake holes, brought their debtor protection laws up to date to deal with the real world.  
One thing the states or Congress should do is provide a one year window and then that transfers and non-judicial collection activity, as well as lawsuits to collect, consumer and small business debts must cease when the statute of limitations runs out.  In recent years, these debts and accounts too old to be enforced in court are bought, sold, and traded to collectors and syndicates they organize for pennies on the dollar so practically anything they collect is pure profit.  The late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes,  Jr., so ruled, and got the court to go along, when he was Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court, long ago, before he was on the U. S. Supreme Court.  
The law should also provide that no creditor or holder of a consumer debt, and no attorney for them, may file or prosecute any suit to collect such a debt after the statute of limitations has run, and  that, contrary to current law, the debtor defendant is not required to defend any such suit or comply with the normal procedural rules, which are stacked in favor of creditors, and which most debtors can't do without the considerable expense of legal counsel.   Since the statute of limitations is a defense, these should be treated as groundless, frivolous, and abusive suits and contempt of court, and the defendants should be awarded statutory damages to compensate them  for lost work time, effort, anxiety and aggravation, attorneys' fees, expenses, and costs.  Likewise for suits which, despite some legal protection, are sometimes still brought in courts far from where the debtors live or were physically present when  they entered into the underlying transaction.
Outrageously, to the contrary, there is a bill pending in the current session of the Texas legislature which would change the long-established procedure for calculating the running of the statute of limitations in, and only in, cases based on credit card debt and the massive charges that start mushrooming unconscionably on it, among other consumer debt, and making it extremely difficult or impossible for a debtor to establish that it has run or ever would run because the creditor or collector's unilateral activity could extend it.
Never answer or return a call from a collector.  If you do, and nobody is on the line, hang up immediately. Nothing you say will help, and "anything you say can and will be used against you."  Any required notices, such as that the debt is not correct, should be given in writing by certified mail, and nothing requires you to divulge an unlisted or cell number.  They are not normally allowed to call on your cell phone unless you gave them that number. They are required to identify themselves, including a true business name, and anyone you want to talk to will normally provide their true business identity (not a collector's name or fragment of it) to your Caller ID.  The FDCPA technically allows you to have the claim sent back to the owner by a collection agency, but there are ways to evade that.  
Telephone and most mail collectors, much like the Devil.  All they can do is lie and threaten.  If you get sued, then you need to act to defend yourself, and should hire an attorney right away if you can afford one.

Some can't pay their debts of an unexpected layoff, medical bills, or divorce. They had planned to pay when they took them on, well maybe not in the medical situation. If they feel obligated to pay their bills then pay THE ORIGINAL CREDITOR ONLY. Don't pay the evil parasites who buy the debt for pennies on the dollar and then violate laws to collect.

Nothing in my remarks anywhere in this whole thread suggests that victims of debt collector abuse "don't deserve to be compensated". I have suggested, and plainly opined, that a crowd of armchair paralegals has gathered here claiming we can all get relief which the FDCPA [i]does not provide[/i]. This matters because people who run half-cocked on inaccurate opinions found through casual coffee break research [i]lose their cases[/i] against debt collectors.

I do not need your "news flash honey" about the fee-shifting provision of the FDCPA. The reality of how it's used is that average consumer lawyers "won't touch a case" in which they can't see their money from a few hours of desk work. I've had bar professionals yawn in my face and tell me I "had no case" when clearly I did. The real problem was their laziness and fear of prosecuting the same lawyers they routinely ask for "discount" deals in debt cases.

Nodding to John's crack about me, I ran my own FDCPA case all last year against a Buffalo Bully. Lawyers would not help me, which was okay since my goal was not to cut a deal and run. I wanted my tormentors punished for what they did to my family. I did better than I should have, winning a four-figure judgment check which did not have to be split with anyone in pinstripes.

All said, my complaint detailed [i]several dozen[/i] violations of FDCPA and state law. I won in part because I did not make such a stupid mistake as to claim I needed six figures in statutory damages. When I wrote the complaint I did not sit looking at my Royal desk calculator with my pupils turning into dollar signs while multiplying $1000 by any number. That is because the FDCPA is very clear on the fact that I [/b]cannot exceed[/b] that $1K amount in a stat fine alone. I did exceed that through [i]other kinds of relief[/i] available to me. I have been referring to such other forms of relief [i]all through this thread[/i].

Jump on my kneecaps and call me a shill for the enemy if it makes you feel better, but [/b]read the law[/b] for yourself like I keep advising.

} NOWHERE does it state a maximum of $1,000 for ALL violations.
} Scott...where did you get your jailhouse law degree.

Try reading the *entire* Act if you want to catcall me and Scott (as "Nope...try again!" nine minutes prior) for reading it *correctly*.

The meaning of §1692k is totally lost on you. I pointed you to a handy FTC link of that section. Here's another one from Cornell:
§ 1692k. Civil liability
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/15/1692k

That section and what I said about 1692k(a)(2)(A) in August 2012 is not changing just for you. The $1K maximum prize is for "the case of any action by an individual". One individual is one person. One action is one lawsuit. One person, one lawsuit .... It's a one-to-one ratio. You can't make the math any simpler.

Congress worked for three years hammering out the FDCPA, which is written in plain language and meant to be enforced that way. If its authors wanted us to win a statutory fine "per violation" it would have used that phrase, but it doesn't and you can't. You do get to stack fines for repetitive violations of other consumer laws like FCRA and TCPA. Not the FDCPA, not ever in its 35 year history.

As proof of your huffy claim you backpedal to 1692k(a)(1), the line providing actual damages, which *are not the same* as statutory. Actual damages are (usually) about a tangible loss you can prove, like lost wages, job termination, being medicated for unbearable stress, and so on. How do you propose to prove your loss in thousands of dollars from each phone call? Most people with FDCPA complaints don't have that type of loss, so the statutory fine is like a default setting to help them spank their offenders.

The meaning of failure "to comply with any provision" is that, unlike some other laws, you need not wait for a series of violations to have a cause of action. It says that *a single violation* is enough for a lawsuit, which is a handy advantage for a law with such a limited statutory fine.

Should you keep insisting otherwise, you need a good remedial English tutor far more than you need any apologies.

I like how these holier than though people want to preach about others lives. They pay their bills but come on a site like this to tell us to pay our bills. Youre ignorant. Wait till you get a call saying you owe x amount of dollars and it's not your bill but they keep calling and calling regardless of what you tell them. Think about that. Glad you called them and everything worked out hunky dory for you. Sometimes people pay, then they sell the debit so if it not paid and you get to start all over again, or you get to keep that negitive mark on your credit report for an extended 7 years from the last payment. Yeah that'll work. My theory is sue the hell out of them grab 1000s from each one, bam! Free money to pay your bills. Like it or not it worked for me. Now, debit free. Ahhh, life is good.