Archive for the ‘las vegas debt collection’ Category

9 Tactics Hospital Debt Collectors Use in Las Vegas

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

Times have not been good for hospitals in the U.S. Large numbers of Americans do not have health insurance, but they get sick and injured just the same, which causes them to amass a lot of medical debt. When they get sick again they often have no choice but to use their credit cards or accept emergency care. As a result, according to the New York Times, hospitals have large, unpaid accounts receivables. In 2010, 5,000 community hospitals gave out $39.3 billion in uncompensated health care, which was 16 percent higher than in 2007. To deal with this, hospitals now hire debt collection agents to ensure that hospitals are paid, including for services given earlier. Here are nine examples of things debt collector hospital employees do to ensure the hospital is paid.

(1)  Hospitals have debt collectors stand at the front of emergency rooms and demand payment. Often debt collectors will discourage people from taking emergency care entirely if they can’t afford it, or they will demand that patients pay for their previous hospital visits before entering the emergency room.

(2)  The debt collectors use scripts—just like when they call debtors on the phone—to ask for payment, such as telling patients that they can retrieve their checkbooks from their cars to pay for previous visits.

(3)  Some companies give collectors access to confidential patient information, which is in violation of federal law, to help them enforce payment.

(4)  Most of the time hospitals turn to debt collectors after the care has been provided, but more recently, they’ve started turning over the management of front-end stations (appointment scheduling, patient registration) to debt collection companies to monitor patient payment.

(5)  Collectors often pressure employees to collect payment from as many patients as possible, even going so far as to reward them with gift cards for good performance.

(6)  Debt collectors even focus on extracting payments from women checking into obstetrics wards for labor and delivery.

(7)  Collection efforts become so aggressive that sometimes other hospital staff members claim it interferes with their provision of health care. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act requires hospitals to provide emergency health care without regard to citizenship, immigration status, or ability to pay.

(8)  Collection companies begin tracking patients who have not paid in “stop lists.”

(9)  Collection companies sometimes do not identify themselves as debt collectors, often in violation of state law.

Medical debt is a serious problem facing Americans, but hospital debt collectors often break the law when attempting to collect on debts, such as patient privacy laws and debt collection practice laws. If you had to take on debt to pay for medical care, and it’s a burden to you, a Las Vegas bankruptcy lawyer can help you with your debt situation so hopefully you can avoid dealing with debt collectors in person.

For more questions about bankruptcy in Las Vegas, please feel free to contact an experienced Haines & Krieger Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney for a free initial consultation. Call us at 702-880-5554 to set up your free consultation.

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6 Reasons for Las Vegas debtors to Use Certified Mail with Creditors

Friday, December 23rd, 2011

A creditor-debtor relationship is rarely friendly. The business aspect will nearly always take precedence over any other aspect of your relationship with an acquaintance, much less a bank.

The point, though, is not to give advice about how to handle debt issues with personal relations. Rather, the concern is your relationship with corporatized creditors: banks, mortgage servicing companies, credit card companies, credit agencies, and, of course, debt collectors. The best guide is that the less you have to deal with them the better, because when you do have to deal with them, it’s almost always adversarial. One thing worth doing is corresponding with them by certified mail and choosing the “return receipt requested” option. There are six reasons.

  1. Mailing the letter alone creates a hassle for the courts. Sure, there are legal doctrines for handling whether someone sent or received a letter, but often they work against you, and by the time you have to prove you corresponded to a bank or debt collector, you’re way past wanting to lean on legal doctrines to save your case.
  2. The same goes for phone calls and faxes. Fax machines might not work, fax confirmation sheets don’t always prove your recipient got your fax, an intern may have thrown the tray’s contents out, and answering machines get deleted or wiped.
  3. E-mail is cheap, but so are spam-filters, and sometimes they screen innocuous, contextually accurate terms, like “mortgage.” Also, some e-mail systems allow confirmation protocols, but they’re almost always optional. If you ran a debt collection agency, would you voluntarily tell a debtor you got their e-mail?
  4. Certified mail, return receipt requested means the recipient must sign a small green card to acknowledge receipt and take possession of the letter. If it refuses, the postal service must return the letter to you. You will know what happened to it.
  5. If your debt problem goes to litigation, creditors can take the position that they didn’t receive your correspondence, and you will have the green paper to prove it. Unlike other forms of communication, courts explicitly trust the United States Postal Service, so once you prove you sent the letter, creditors will have to claim the USPS mixed things up. That will not fly in front of a jury or judge.

Successfully dealing with creditors requires organization. If you want to best them and prove to a court that you’re right, or more likely, you want to use some piece of tangible evidence as leverage in a negotiation, then that green paper will be well worth the extra few dollars.

For more questions about bankruptcy in Las Vegas, please feel free to contact an experienced Haines & Krieger Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney for a free initial consultation by calling 702-880-5554.

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Debt Settlement and Your Taxes

Saturday, December 17th, 2011

Debt settlement ads are very attractive to individuals struggling with debt. The promise is to reach an agreement you can afford to pay. The debtor agrees to pay a percentage of the debt (usually in a lump sum), and the creditor agrees to release the remaining obligation. Sounds simple, right?

Unfortunately, many times the debtor will receive a nasty surprise in the mail: an IRS Form 1099-C: “Cancellation of Debt.” You see, the U.S. Internal Revenue Service considers forgiven or canceled debt as part of your income. In fact, any creditor who agrees to accept at least $600 less than the original balance is required to file a 1099-C form with the IRS and to send debtors a canceled debt notice. If you have negotiated a debt settlement, you must report the forgiven or canceled debt as income on your federal income tax return. This usually causes a tax debt, since no money was withheld from this “income.”

There is an exception to this situation. If you were insolvent at the time the debt was settled, the cancelled debt is not considered income. The IRS instructs the taxpayer to “determine your liabilities and the fair market value of your assets immediately before the cancellation of your debt to determine whether or not you are insolvent and the amount by which you are insolvent.” Let’s say your net assets after subtracting your liabilities amounts to $5,000. If you negotiate a debt settlement for $10,000, you must pay taxes on the first $5,000 of the cancelled debt. If your tax rate is 25%, you may Uncle Sam over a thousand dollars!

For debtors who have negotiated big savings through a debt settlement company, a large tax debt can be a slap in the face. Owing the federal government is much worse than owing a credit card company. Here are some interesting “facts” about owing the IRS:

  • the IRS does not have to obtain a court judgment before garnishing your wages;
  • recent tax debts are not dischargeable in bankruptcy;
  • the IRS can intercept future tax refunds and even government benefits like social security to pay your income tax debt.

Congress has made sure that all debts discharged during bankruptcy are excluded from “Cancellation of Debt” income. If your debt is discharged, the debt cannot be collected from you in the future, and you owe no taxes on it. If you can afford to repay a part of a debt, a Chapter 13 bankruptcy will allow you to pay what you can afford, over three to five years, and the remaining debt is discharged without a “Cancellation of Debt” tax obligation. If you cannot afford to repay any part of the debt, a Chapter 7 can discharge the debt within a few short months.

Debt settlement often makes a bad situation worse. Before you commit to a settlement process to eliminate your debts, speak with an experienced bankruptcy attorney. You deserve to know all of the consequences before agreeing to any financial program – including any potential tax liability. Your attorney can explain the pros and cons of debt settlement and bankruptcy, and can help you decide on the best course of action.

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3 Things to Consider When a Collector Asks for Confidentiality in a Settlement in Las Vegas

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

If you believe you’ve been illegally harassed by a debt collector, it’s a good idea to talk to an experienced Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney. There’s a chance that the collector did in fact break the law, and you may be able to receive compensation in a lawsuit. Once you sue the collector, though, often you’ll find that they are willing to settle, especially if your attorney is good enough to show that it broke the law pursuing the debt. However, it may ask you and your attorney to sign a confidentiality agreement that prohibits you and your attorney from discussing the amount of the settlement. It may even ask you to refrain from discussing the lawsuit at all, which is a more novel concept on the part of debt collectors. Here are three things to consider.

  1. Confidentiality over the amount you settled isn’t always a bad thing. The bank likely does not want other plaintiffs (and their attorneys) to know that they are willing to pay out that much in a debt collection case. Whether it’s worthwhile for you to pursue this option is up to you because it’s your case. Sure, your Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney won’t be able to say, “I got my client xxxxxxxxx dollars; I may be able to do that for you!” in an advertisement, but that’s not for your lawyer to decide.
  2. As to a prohibition on discussing the lawsuit at all? That’s a different issue. One of the reasons the debt collection companies wants to prevent you from discussing a case that’s a matter of public record is to get a “Gotcha!” on you. If you tell a friend, relative, neighbor, or acquaintance that you filed this lawsuit, you will be liable to the debt collection company if it finds out. Sadly, it will probably have a good case against you.
  3. The second reason the debt collection company wants you to sign that agreement is to ensure that your attorney doesn’t use it as an example of what he or she accomplished. This is both true in talking shop with other attorneys or in front of audiences and in your attorney’s advertising. It’s one thing if your lawyer can’t talk about the amounts he or she obtained from a client, but it’s another thing entirely if discussing the case and the identity of the debt collector is off-limits.

If you’re settling with a debt collector that misbehaved, it’s important to know the impact of signing a confidentiality agreement. If you’re settling for a large amount, it’ll be bad business for the collector (which you probably couldn’t care less about), but it might be offering a good deal in exchange for your silence. By contrast, barring you from discussing your case at all—and being able to sue you if you let it casually slip that you filed a lawsuit with a debt collector—is probably going too far. If you find yourself in these circumstances, there is good reason why you likely shouldn’t sign the agreement.

For more questions about bankruptcy in Las Vegas, please feel free to contact an experienced Haines & Krieger Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney for a free initial consultation by calling 702-880-5554.

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5 Reasons to Take Notes When Speaking to Debt Collectors in Las Vegas

Monday, December 5th, 2011

Bottom line: Las Vegas debt collectors want to get paid. They aren’t known for their politeness, and people who don’t have money to pay their debts don’t like talking to creditors demanding it. Debt collectors will use as many methods at their disposal as they can to contact debtors to get their money. Often these practices are considered harassment; in many cases, they are illegal but the punishments are insufficient to deter it.

One common tactic is calling debtors at home. If this happens to you, be sure to take notes. Here’s why:

  1. The more detailed your notes, the more credible you will be if the debt collector sues you. Your notes are admissible to refresh your recollection of the phone calls if you testify in court.
  2. Debt collectors take notes too, and they frequently change debtors’ words, call them and tell them they said things they didn’t, such as when they would pay. Debt collectors may offer options in one phone conversation only to deny offering it in subsequent conversations to confuse debtors.
  3. Your notes will help your lawyer prepare a case against the debt collector if it breaks the law, like the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Notes themselves allow attorneys to draft a complaint that can specify exactly what debt collectors said and why their clients deserve relief.
  4. Of particular importance are dates and times of when the debt collector called, the name of the debt collection company, the identity of the person calling, and what that person said.
  5. Recording calls is risky. Sometimes the technology doesn’t work, creating a garbled conversation, other times it may be illegal if the consent of the other party is required, and the contents of recorded conversations must be transcribed for easy reference in subsequent phone conversations and discussions with one’s attorney. The debt collector might try to talk fast, but you don’t have to speak until you’re done writing and you can ask the person on the other end to slow down and repeat himself or herself. If privacy is available, you may wish to switch to speakerphone to free your hands.

Debt collectors can be obnoxious and worse, often resort to illegal practices. If you believe a debt collector broke the law, contact an experienced Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney for a case evaluation.

For more questions about bankruptcy in Las Vegas, please feel free to contact an experienced Haines & Krieger Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney for a free initial consultation.

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3 Steps to Defeating “Zombie Debt” Collectors

Wednesday, September 21st, 2011

In an honest world, we would expect that when someone pays down a debt, settles it, or discharges it in bankruptcy that is would be no more because it would no longer be legally enforceable. As many Las Vegas consumers know, we do not live in an honest world.

Truth is, there’s a lot of money to be made on very old debts. Banks will take loans that they think will never get paid, bundle them, and then sell them to third parties at a discount. These third parties, called “zombie debt collectors” in the credit industry, then use the legal system to enforce the debts. Because they bought the bundle at a discount, they don’t need to succeed with every debtor—just enough to make it worthwhile. Often it is.

For example, the Denver Post discovered that a Virginia-based zombie debt collector named Portfolio Recovery Associates paid only $1.6 billion for $52.9 billion of consumer debt, a 97 percent discount.

Contained in these bundles is usually nothing more than a computer readout with a name, an account number, and a balance. With just this information, the company goes on a collection spree: reporting it to the credit agencies as unpaid, locating the debtor and harassing him or her with phone calls, and ultimately filing lawsuits against them. The collector hopes that the cost of the lawsuit is greater than the value on the debt, making it worthwhile for the debtor to pay money that is no longer owed. In many instances, the collector obtains a default judgment, making it much more difficult for the putative debtor to dismiss the case.

Here’s how to defeat the zombie debt collector:

  1. Hire a competent lawyer
  2. Respond to all lawsuits and assert the following defenses as applicable:
    1. Statute of limitations – these debts are usually long past their collection date
    2. Failure to state a claim – if the debt has been paid off or settled, the collector cannot sue you for it
  3. Assert all claims against the collector
    1. Violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act – collecting zombie debt is illegal and these laws provide civil remedies, often with punitive damages against the collector
    2. Violation of the discharge – here, your lawyer will go back to the bankruptcy court and obtain a contempt order against the creditor, this usually results in attorneys fees

Zombie debt is a toxic nuisance for people in Las Vegas, and they should not tolerate illegal efforts by collectors.

For more questions about bankruptcy in Las Vegas, please feel free to contact an experienced Haines & Krieger Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney for a free initial consultation by calling 702-880-5554.

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Debt Collectors Cry Foul

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

The New York Times has written a story about the debt collection industry and its poor telephone collectors who, not surprisingly, get no respect. The article states that one debt collector, Lesllie Rogers, uses a pseudonym because she has “been routinely insulted, pummeled with obscenities, crudely propositioned and threatened with violence by the people she calls.”

Really? The collectors feel threatened by the debtors?

The Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA) is a federal law that protects the debtor from abusive collection practices, such as:

  • Telephone contact before 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. local time;
  • Telephone harassment such as constant telephone calls or repeated telephone conversations with the intent to annoy, abuse, or harass;
  • Telephone contact at the debtor’s job after being informed that such contact is unacceptable or prohibited by the employer;
  • Contacting a debtor known to be represented by an attorney;
  • Contact after a debtor has made a request for validation of the debt;
  • Threatening arrest that is not lawfully permitted;
  • Using abusive or profane language towards the debtor;
  • Discussing the nature of a debt with a third party; and
  • Contact by embarrassing media, such as a postcard or telegram.

The FDCPA applies to third parties, such as collection agencies and attorneys, and carries a penalty of up to $1,000 and attorney fees. The FDCPA also prohibits “any false, deceptive, or misleading representation or means in connection with the collection of any debt,’ including “The use of any false representation or deceptive means to collect or attempt to collect any debt or to obtain information concerning a consumer.” So, does the use of a pseudonym used by Lesllie Rogers and other debt collectors violate the federal law? Does the FDCPA allow such falsehoods during the process of collecting a debt?

The FDCPA is a federal law that protects consumers. There are several laws that can help protect your property, your liberty, and even your sanity from bill collectors. If you are experiencing financial trouble, speak with an experienced Haines & Krieger Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney and discover the federal and state laws that protect your rights. Call us at 702-880-5554.

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Las Vegas Debt Collection and Your Rights

Monday, March 28th, 2011

Debt collectors can be ruthless. Persistent telephone calls at home and work, embarrassing letters in red envelopes, calls to friends and family, and even public posts to your Facebook account are all dirty tactics that debt collectors employ to harass you into paying. Fortunately, there are laws that protect you from unlawful creditor harassment.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, is a federal law that protects against abusive collection practices by third party collectors. Third party collectors include collection agencies and collection attorneys. The FDCPA does not apply to business debts or to original creditors. The FDCPA prohibits certain abusive practices including:

  • Telephone calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. (your time);
  • Requesting payment beyond what is actually owed;
  • Using abusive, profane or obscene language;
  • Threatening legal action which is not permitted by law (e.g. criminal action);
  • Telephone calls at work after being instructed that your employer prohibits phone calls from debt collectors;
  • Contacting you directly after being instructed that you are represented by an attorney

Another federal protection is the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA is designed to promote accuracy and ensure the privacy of the information used in consumer credit reports. The FCRA contains a dispute process for correcting inaccurate information placed on your credit report.  More information about the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act can be found on the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection website.  The FTC is charged with enforcement of both acts.

Hiring a bankruptcy attorney provides immediate relief from creditor harassment under the FDCPA, and all collection action must cease the instant you file a bankruptcy case. This protection lasts the duration of your bankruptcy and is replaced with the bankruptcy discharge at the end of your case. A creditor who violates these bankruptcy prohibitions can face a contempt of court charge in the federal bankruptcy court.

Don’t let creditor harassment overwhelm your life. Take charge by consulting an experienced Haines & Kreiger Las Vegas bankruptcy attorney about your debt and learn how the federal and state laws can protect your property, your income, and your peace of mind. Call us at 702-880-5554.

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