almost_there Posted July 7, 2003 Report Share Posted July 7, 2003 This is going to be my thread to keep everyone posted in my progress suing JBC. To recap for any new readers: Last Wednesday night, after work, I logged on to my computer a few minutes after 10 p.m. to find an offline message from my mom that an attorney's office had called their house for me and left a message for me to call the attorney's office back by 10 p.m.! There was also a case number in the message for reference. Thinking that it must be serious in order for an attorney's office to be calling, I quickly called the number my mom passed along and hoped that someone would still be in the office. After it rang several times and no one answered, I assumed I was SOL and hung up. I thought, "well I hope it can wait till morning." Right away, my phone rang and it was a lady calling me back from some law firm. I immediately asked what it was in regards to and she replied that they were representing a business for a very old debt of mine for a $6 bad check from May 1997. I asked, "isn't the statute of limitations up on this check?" "In New Jersey, it's 8 years.""Oh, so that is what state you're using?""It's 8 years in every state for a bad check."OK, I thought, so that answers that question. Then she went into telling me how I HAD to pay by 9 a.m. Thursday morning. I said, "ok, I'm not refusing to pay this but what if I can't have the money by then?" "If the money is not in our office by 9 a.m., I go into meet with the attorneys and we'll file the paperwork in court tomorrow morning.""How am I supposed to pay so quick?""Western Union""It's after 10, can I do it over the internet?""We don't accept payment over the internet. You'll have to go to Western Union or call their 800 number, they'll be happy to assist you.""What if I don't have the money tonight?""If the money isn't received here by 9 a.m. we will prosecute you. We will file the paperwork tomorrow morning."When she said prosecute, that was what made up my mind. The threat of a judgement was bad enough, but when she mentioned prosecution, I thought she meant as in a theft charge for the check. No way!I got the information from her to send the payment, totaling $54. That was $6 for the original check, $30 for the bad check charge ($36 was all I was expecting to have to pay) then another $18 for the three times the amount of the check. I called Western Union and ended up having a problem sending the money because of the sate I was calling from, MN. The operator at Western Union was really great, especially when I got upset about not being able to send the money and why I was sending it. She even said. "oh my god! some people!" about the lady I had just talked to at JBC. The operator at Western union told me to go ahead and try the internet, which I did, successfully. But for a while there, I was really worried that I wasn't going to be able to pay them and wake up with a very big mess on my hands. I called JBC back and gave the lady the transfer control number. I told her I would call again tomorrow to make sure everything went as planned.When I woke up on Thursday morning, I immediately came here and began to put 2 and 2 together that I had just been royally screwed the night before. I looked at the FDCPA and thought to myself, "there's one! Ooops! There's another!" in a long list of things that didn't sit well with me about that phone call. Glaring at me from the screen was the rule about being an attorney or representing yourself as one or in affliation with one. When someone leaves messages from an attorney's office, answers their phone "law firm" and talks about filing against you and prosecuting you, without actually saying "this is so and so, attorney at law, " what would you think? Being that I don't think she actually called herself an attorney, overwhelming someone with aggressive collection tactics and not making it clear she WASN'T an attorney, I didn't think in the moment to stop and make her clarify. They have it all set up to lead people to assume they are talking to attorney's! Calling from an attorney's office, answering the phone "law firm" using case numbers instead of account numbers. Now it all seems so obvious!Continued in next message..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almost_there Posted July 7, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 7, 2003 -Then there is the issue about threatening me with litigation and prosecution.-Then there is the issue about the SOL, which if I find out (still can't find it) she was lying when she said 8 years, that's one more item on my list of complaints.-Then there is the fact that they called me back after 10, which may be a thin argument, but at this point I plan to get them on whatever I can.-Then there is JBC's website, which boasts pretty openly about being able to collect money where others couldn't. In fact, it wasn't until going to their website that I learned it wasn't actually attorney's I was dealing with, but just another collection agency! I've printed out copies of their claims, because if a judge wants proof of motive for this woman's behavior, right there it is!When I was talking to her the other night, every question I had was quickly silenced by either a spouting off about the law and how I broke it by writing a bad check or with the answer that it had to be paid by 9 a.m., no exceptions. The recollection of our conversation above is pretty much how it went. I never refused to pay, but any question I had about my ability to was met with "it must be 9 a.m. or else" Or else I was gonna get sued or else I was going to be prosecuted or else all the hard work I've been doing at credit repair and financial responsibility was going to suffer a brand new huge black mark. So I paid. I don't mind that I did, as it turns out the $70 (including the Western union fee) was available to me after all, after I got a chance to sit down and move some stuff around in my budget. Now I'm going to go after as much satisfaction on this as I can and I'm not talking about money. If I win, I'll put the money to good use, but the idea of taking a stand against these people is by far more valuable to me than any possible financial win.Wish me luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadynRed Posted July 7, 2003 Report Share Posted July 7, 2003 JBC is BAD, BAD, BAD. They are picking up where NCC left off with their illegal tactics and Western Union BS !!SOL on a check is NOT 8 YEARS ACROSS ALL STATES !! That is utterly LUDICROUS ! Each state has its own statute of limitations for everything and checks are NOT considered written contracts - they'll try to pull THAT one on you too. Someone posted that they'd spoken to someone at the FDIC and they stated the SOL on a dishonored check is 2 years !! Well.. at any rate, a check from 1997 is definitely NOT valid and they have NO RIGHT to collect on the 'treble damages' allowed by civil penalty , that can ONLY come from a JUDGE !!Yes, you were definitely duped, but at least you came to the right place - just a tad too late. Do not EVER believe ANY CA that gives you any kind of bogus 'time limit' to pay a debt. They could NOT have filed 'tomorrow' .. it never happens that fast !!!I hope you succeed - they are nasty violators. LOTS of people are having huge problems with them. Drop on over at www.cardreport.com and cruise the archives for JBC, you're hair will stand on end with the stories !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
C Whitney Posted July 8, 2003 Report Share Posted July 8, 2003 I was the one who e-mailed the Federal Reserve Board about JBC and their lame attempt to collect on an 8 yr old check my daughter had written. In part this is what they had to say..."The majority of the state legislatures, including Florida have adopted the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC). Although we cannot speak authoratatively on state law, we note that under the UCC, an action for the colection of a check must be commenced with in three years after the cause of action accrues. UCC sec. 4-111.You can e-mail them at FRB.Mail@frd.govI wrote JBC a wonderful letter and told them they surely didn't mean to threaten her ( my daughter) with a lawsuit on a check that was passed the SOL to sue over and as a law firm they should be aware of the UCC and all of its implications. Then I told them to "Go pee up a tree" :D Good luck with your law suit... keep us posted. :p :p [Edit by C Whitney on [TIME]1057716618[/TIME]] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted July 9, 2003 Report Share Posted July 9, 2003 Found this at Lawdog.com for state of Iowa. Thought you may be able to use it.When a check, draft or order has been dishonored, after presented trice, for lack of funds, a credit may pursue a civil action to recover the amount of the check and seek damages for three times the amount of the check up to a maximum of $500.00. However, the treble damages may generally be awarded only if the creditor has complied with the written notice requirement under Section 554.3513 of the Iowa Code. A prerequisite for the recovery of treble damages is that the creditor has "clearly and conspicuously posted a notice at the usual place of payment, or in a billing statement of the creditor, stating that civil damages pursuant to Section 554.3513 would be sought upon dishonorment". In addition, thirty (30) days before a creditor commences a civil action to recover the damages on a dishonored check, he must send a written demand to the debtor either by personal service or by restricted certified mail, notifying the debtor that if the face amount of the dishonored check is not paid within thirty (30) days, treble damages would be sought. [Edit by Pale Rider 2 on [TIME]1057714461[/TIME]] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted July 9, 2003 Report Share Posted July 9, 2003 Here is a link to statute of limitations for Iowa.http://www.legis.state.ia.us/IACODE/2003/614/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almost_there Posted July 9, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 9, 2003 Thanks Pale Rider 2 Guess what I just found I remembered getting a letter from JBC awhile ago, but I misplaced it and I hadn't taken it very seriously anyway because I thought the SOL was up. Well I found it. And man is it ever incriminating!It says from JBC....Attorney's at Law. Funny, on their web site they do not claim to be attorney's. The amount they are asking for in the letter is only $36, not the $54 I ended up paying them.The bottom of the letter also says "this is an attempt to collect a debt by a debt collector. Any information obtained will be used for that purpose."LMAO @ these guys! Their @$$ is mine now!!!! :p :p Interestingly, I flip the letter over and see NCO Portfolio Management listed at the top of a bunch of debt collection mumbo jumbo. I know that NCO is a debt collection agency, too. I once settled with them on an old credit card. Must be like JBC's parent company or something.[Edit by almost_there on [TIME]1057721457[/TIME]] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
almost_there Posted July 10, 2003 Author Report Share Posted July 10, 2003 I am having very poor luck finding an attorney willing to return my phone calls, let alone help me sue these people. I talked to one attorney today that was much more interested in selling me on bankruptcy! The problem is, as I see it, there are virtually no consumer protection lawyers in my city. So, I called Edelman, Combs & Latturner. I'm supposed to send them all my materials and a description of what happened. They will review my case and determine if it's worth pursuing. But my mind is made up. Even if I have to do it without representation, I'm going to go through with this. I have one year to file a case against them, so I still have roughly 358 days Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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