Hello world

At last, here's the Fourth Amendment and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act blog that after a few days you'll wonder how you ever got along without. Published semi-occasionally whenever I don't have anything better to do. Check out my homepage at www.fairdebtlawyer.com and yes I know the design sucks so I'll change it in the very near future.

The Fourth Amendment is about search and seizure, and it is the most important part of the Constitution to law enforcement officers, because they are the ones who search and seize rather often. It reads in full: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unresonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants whall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." The kernel of Fourth Amendment protection is reasonableness. Searches and seizures that are so unreasonable as to violate the Fourth Amendment can get the officer in all kinds of trouble. Your department may discipline or fire you, the judge may throw out your evidence and let a dangerous criminal walk, you may get sued and have to pay a lot of money, and in extreme cases you may go to prison for years or for life. So PAY ATTENTION young Jedi, and I'll try to help you stay away from the Dark Side.

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act takes up a few pages, which you can find starting at 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq. (translation, Title 15 of the United States Code, Section 1692 and following sections). FDCPA sets rules for third-party debt collectors (usually collection agencies or collection law firms, CA for short) and provides for damages and attorney fees for collectors who get caught violating the rules. Many states, including my home drome of North Carolina, have additional fair debt collection practices laws and licensing of CAs. There are 6,000 collection agencies in the United States, many of whom are A-OK, many of whom are downright shady, and some of whom are little more than organized crime fronts. I've seen all kinds of CA shenanigans, from technical glitches in dunning letters to flat-out wire fraud and extortion. Some bad things are obviously illegal, but some bad things are only bad if you read FDCPA very carefully. The main federal watchdog agency for debt collection is the Federal Trade Commission, but FTC has A LOT to do and they can only sue two or three of the very worst FDCPA offenders every year. For the most part, it's us private consumer lawyers that make FDCPA happen. This area of law has long been obscure, but more and more lawyers are getting the word that debt collection is THE most complained-about industry that FTC keeps track of, and complaints have about doubled in just three years. I'll try to keep track of some of the more interesting FDCPA developments here.

Y'all chime in with comments and questions as often as you like. I tend to forget that not everybody has spent so many years looking at court opinions that now they read like novels to me. If the learner hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught.