How do you know if a law firm is contacting you and not a collection agency?

[maddie6]

Hi!

I had posted earlier today concerning my situation. I would like to know how tell if a law firm is contacting you concerning your debt and not a collection agency posing as a law firm?

Thank you for your time.

[fightemdontfold]

I can give you some insight on this one based on my experiance.

It would help to know whether or not you have been contacted by anyone about the debt in the past since it left the OC, assuming it has.

I would say the "law firm" contacting you is probably a CA themselves with an exception being if the "law firm" is contacting you regarding a debt that you are aware was recently with a CA.

If the "law firm" contacting you is in your state then you are probably subject to be sued on the debt, especially if you know of another CA recently having the debt on their file. That is what happened to me, the debt I have been sued over was with the OC was sold to a JDB and then sold to another JDB and they sat on it for two years. Both JDB's, as well as the half dozen or so other JDB's that the two owners of the debt enlisted to send me letters, were all out of state. I knew I was probably going to be sued when a law firm (the kinda law firm that pretty much just does JDB cases) in my state sent me a letter. The letter clearly said they were being enlisted to collect on a debt owned by the JDB suing me.

If they do not mention they are collecting for the current owner of the debt, or it is not listed on there who the current creditor is, then they are probably the people who paid pennies on the dollar for it.

If the "law firm" contacting you is out of state, I would wager it is probably a JDB in law firm clothing and is playing the part of a JDB.

I too was contacted by a couple of "law firms" a few years back (Eskanos and Adler and another one that took over for them, or took over from them,lol) and I was pretty scared but that was before I had done any research online. Luckily I didn't hurt myself and pay them or otherwise give them any info in the meantime. Many many phone calls though, wow.

Again if they are out of your state, they are probably trying to get you to pay them with phone harrassment and mailings, they themselves probably will not sue you. It doesn't mean that they may not hire someone else to sue you, but they are probably not going to fly in to do it.

Keep in mind also they might be one of those collectors that the JDB's hire to contact you, really goofy complicated system and I have no idea if there is a method to the madness, but like I said I have letters from over a half dozen companies and "law firms" that didn't own the debt but were trying to collect for the JDB. Again based on my experiance, it should list who the current owner is.

Edited March 20, 2011 by fightemdontfold

[maddie6]

Dear fightthemdontfold,

Thank you for your response.

This debt was with at least two CA's in the past 2 1/4 years.

This "law firm" is out of state in NY. They are a law firm out there, specializing in collecting medical debt. They seemed to have recently gotten into consumer debt, at least from what I have read about them online.

They do mention who their "client" is. I researched who is their "client", but could not find anything online. All I'd seen was this mysterious webpage with the "client's" name on it, with a phone number identifying the area code (516), and the phone number is in all zeros. The webpage is literally a blank page. This does not tell me a thing as to who the owner of this debt is.

I looked up the area code, and this is the same area code in which this "law firm" is assigned to regionally, which makes me think that they are the "client". (You think it could be them?)

I am scared right now. This is only because of an issue that I had dealt with last year. Just like you, I was served a summons, but it was with a law firm that also does collections out here in this state, not from an out of state firm, like you said.

I feel for you by way of the phone calls...ugh.

I'd looked up all of their names. They are not listed with the bar in the state I live in. But, like you said, it doesn't mean that they won't hire someone out here to sue.

fightthemdontfold, given what I'd written about who they were claiming who the current owner of the debt is, how do I truly find out who is the current owner of this debt?

Again, thank you for your response.

[fightemdontfold]

First of all, if you are saying two CA's (JDB's) actually owned the debt, meaning it has been sold from one JDB to another, that means that it will be VERY unlikely that they will have access to what will be needed to prove their claim should they sue you. Doesn't mean they won't try to collect and perhaps even sue you but judging from what I have read and from my own experiance I can say with confidence that they more than likely have little to nothing to prove that you owe anything.

You probably are being contacted by the hired thugs of the JDB. I just ignored them and laughed at the fact that they would call me 3 or 4 times a week at the same time of day, I would never anwser. Only now I know that they probably were using an auto dialer..lol

If they are in New York you probably have nothing to worry about as far as being sued, not until you have something sent to you by someone in your state. I am not certain how you would find out who owns it if they are not being clear. I was able to research the chain of custody of the account I am being sued over by going back through all the letters I basically just opened and stored away, put the puzzle together that way.

Some might advise you to DV them, that would help to find out who owns it. I was a bit leery of doing that as I had read many accounts of people DV'ing and then getting sued very soon after. If you are prepared to deal with that, you might DV them to find out who owns it and what they have, probably little to nothing, but if you are not prepared to defend against a suit then you might avoid the DV, the JDB suing me waitied 2 years to sue me, I was hoping that they would not bother but they ended up suing me.