Achieve Online Signature Lawfulness for Cease and Desist Letter in United States

How to eSign a document: online signature lawfulness for Cease and Desist Letter in United States

hey guys welcome to this video my name is john watts i'm a consumer protection lawyer and i want us to look at cease and desist letters and specifically what does the fdcpa the fair debt collection practices what does it actually say about cease and desist letters and part of the reason i want us to look at this is sometimes there's confusion so for example that expression cease and desist is actually not in this particular section of the fdcpa and there was a judge one time that a consumer wrote a letter to a debt collector said i refuse to pay you this debt and then the debt collector continued to call and write until the consumer sues and said hey you're supposed to stop communication and judge said no no no i don't like what you did you got tricky there you have to say cease and desist well again that's not actually in the law and what's actually in the law is i refuse to pay that means they cannot communicate with you any further so let's look at the actual law here and before we do that we'll just talk about what is a c synthesis letter and so basically you're telling that particular collector so you can't just say i want you and any other collector that's good no you're not allowed to do that only this particular debt collector you're saying don't contact me again now there's a couple of disadvantages number one they may sue you now for that debt collector to sue you they have to own the debt at least in alabama where i practice i think in most states a debt collector who sues you must own the debt but whether they own it or don't own it they could always send it to the original creditor and say to the original creditor hey i want you to sue because they cannot call you they can't write you okay now another possibility is they'll get your cease communications letter and then they'll just transfer it to another debt collector and then you have to start all over okay because remember cease and desist is only for that particular debt collector now here's a big advantage besides just fact that they'll leave you alone is if they continue to write you and try and collect if they continue to call you then you can sue them for money damages under the fdcpa and we'll look at the few exceptions where they are allowed to communicate with you so let's look at the actual section this is section 1692 c and then it's subpart c of the fdcpa so it says if a consumer notifies a debt collector in writing and that's critical it can't be over the phone it's got to be in writing that the consumer refuses to pay a debt so let's just read it like that notify a debt collector in writing consumer refuses to pay a debt the debt collector shall not communicate further with the consumer with respect to such debt except and then there are three exceptions now you can say i refuse to pay this debt or notice that or you can say i wish that the debt collector would cease further communication with me same thing so again there is no nothing in the statute that says cease and desist there's i refuse to pay and number two cease communications with me now if you do either one of those the debt collector must stop communications except and here are three exceptions number one just to write you and say hey we're not gonna communicate with you any further uh we're stopping all debt collection efforts okay well that's a letter you would want to get number two that either the collector or creditor may invoke specified remedies so they might say hey we may credit report on you we may sue you we may do this we may do that which are ordinarily invoked by such debt collector or creditor so they're not saying we are going to do this but they say we may do this and whatever they list has to be something that they typically will do so if they've never filed a lawsuit they can't say hey we may sue you because that's not something they ordinarily do look at number three here or they can say hey the debt collector or the creditor intends to invoke a specified remedy so it's not just that we may do this remember number two is if they say we may do this it has to be something they ordinarily do number three it doesn't have to be something they ordinarily do they just have to say hey we're specifically intending to sue you or do this or do that and then here's just a reminder such notes from consumers made by mel which 99 of time it will notification shall be complete upon receipt so you got to send the stuff by certified mail so that you can prove that they received it now here's some sample language and i'll give you just two little short sentences and you can pick one now you can make the you know the letter longer you can put other stuff in there but number one i refuse to pay you on any debt that you claim to have on me so that would fit right go back if you notify the debt collector in writing the consumer refuses to pay a debt okay or i wish for you to cease all communication with me on any debt you claim to have on me well that's this or part if you say the consumer wishes debt collectors cease further communication with the consumer and then i have it here no matter what you do send it by certified mail keep a copy so keep a physical copy and a digital copy so literally print it out if you're going to sign the letter that's fine sign the one that's going and sign the one that you're keeping stick that in a folder keep a digital version so in other words scan it in as a pdf put that up on google drive evernote onedrive whatever you want to do just make sure you have a physical and a digital version of this and then when you get the green card back or if you're just tracking it through the usps when you get the the sort of the digital easy for me to say digital signature in other words the scan of somebody signing it make sure you keep that because if they get the letter and then you know i wouldn't sue if it was like the very next day a letter goes out or a call goes out but certainly two days after that any time after that if they continue to communicate with you other than those three exceptions remember they've got these three exceptions here if they communicate with you any other way on any other matter except these three things then i would look at suing them now keep this in mind if you send a letter to them and say hey i want you to cease communication and then the next month they get a new debt on you then i think they've got a good argument that they can communicate on that one so you just do the same thing send another letter saying hey guys any debt i refuse to pay or i want you to cease communication if they continue to communicate then you look at suing them so appreciate you guys watching this and i will catch you in the next video okay have a good one bye-bye