Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Tennessee
The legal definition of ''Debt Collector''
An employee of a check advance company that we owe money to, called my husbands supervisor and told him that my husband had a bounced check, (which he did not write...I wrote it as an authorized user on his account). I have been making partial payments on the account and the next scheduled payment was due the day FOLLOWING the phone call.
According to Section 804 of the ''Fair Debt Collections Practices Act'', a debt collector can only talk to a third party to aquire location information on a consumer and ''not state that such consumer owes any debt.'' However, under Section 803, I don't think the employee falls under the ''debt collector'' definition...(then again, I am not a lawyer.)
I understand that a ''Debt Collector'', as defined, suffers civil liablity if this act is violated and damages are suffered. My question is this...are there any circumstances that would classify the employee as a ''debt collector?'' If not...What, if any, regulations, limitations, and liabilities would apply to the employee and/or the company?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: The legal definition of ''Debt Collector''
Your reading is correct. Generally, a debt collector has to be someone collecting the debt owed to another. However, your situation may present another avenue of redress for you. The check-cashing industry is regulated in most states, including Tennessee. These regulations typically include debt collection and the conduct of the employee may have violated the law. You may want to contact the state regulatory agency to determine if a law has been violated or to file a complaint.
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