Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, a debt collector is specifically barred from contacting a consumer where the debt collector knows that the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to the debt and can reasonably ascertain the attorney’s contact information unless the attorney fails to respond within a reasonable period of time to the collector. While the FDCPA is not clear as to what constitutes a reasonable period of time, at least one court rejected the argument that an attorney had to respond within fourteen days. The legislative history of the Act itself suggests that it was never contemplated that an attorney would have less than a week to respond to a collector.
The fact is once a collector learns that an Oregon or Washington consumer is represented by our law firm, the collector must deal exclusively with our attorneys and the consumer may not contact you even to confirm that you have retained us or to provide other legal notices.
If you live in Washington or Oregon and you don’t want to hear from collectors anymore it is likely time to retain an attorney. Contact one our Oregon or Washington offices today so that we can help. I will look forward to hearing from you.
