Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Of course your brother can take disability retirement if he is eligible for it. If the debts are over four years old they might not be collectible anymore because of the statute of limitations. If he gets sued then he can defend himself in court by filing an answer on time and claiming the defense of the statute of limitations in writing. There are exceptions to the statute of limitations but they are rare situations. The attorney is like an employee of the collection company (but not technically) or may even own the collection agency. Collection attorneys do the running back and forth to court but the work is actually done by collection people and paralegals. Many of those attorneys in effect are like renting their Bar cards to the collection agencies where they work. They usually represent only that collection agency. Just have your brother send a letter to each collection agency certified saying he is asking not to be contacted except by mail. No need to do more if the debts are that old. They know that suing him would be a waste of time because they waited too long and doing so might be a violation of consumer protection laws that might give your brother a chance to sue them for money and the cost of the attorney. Therefore, I doubt they would sue him for old debt like that unless there is some exception to the statute of limitations that might apply. Check with a lawyer if he is served with a summons and complaint from a court.