At the conclusion of most individual bankruptcy cases a Debtor receives a “discharge” of his debts. The discharge is a release of your personal legal obligation to repay your debts. In part that discharge serves as an injunction against the discharged creditors ever attempting to collect a discharged debt.

In some cases a creditor may ignore the discharge injunction and continue to harass the debtor in an attempt to collect the debt. This harassment is illegally and hampers the Debtor’s ability to get a fresh start and move on in life.

A creditor may be liable to a debtor for violations of the discharge and have to pay to the debtor money damages.

If you have been the victim of harassing phone calls, collections letters, or other debt collection activates on discharged debt you may be entitled to money damages.  

The Law Office of Robert W. Kovacs, Jr. will pursue all such violations. We will handle your discharge violation case even if you used another attorney for the underlying bankruptcy case.

After filing bankruptcy the “automatic stay” comes into effect.  Much like the name implies it happens automatically upon the filing of your case and stays actions against you.

This means that a creditor cannot call you to collect a on a debt as soon as your case is filed. However, it may actually take 2 – 3 weeks for all your creditors to receive notice of the bankruptcy and really stop calling.

During this 2 – 3 weeks period you may answer the phone and tell your creditors about your bankruptcy filing. The creditor will likely ask for your case number and attorney information. Providing this information will cause the creditor to have actual knowledge of your filing and thus they will have to stop calling.

If they still continue to call, call your lawyer, the creditor may be ignoring the stay or they may not have received notice of your case. In either event a strongly worded letter from your attorney is appropriate.

If after a warning letter from your attorney the creditor continues to call, you may be able to bring an action against your creditor for money damages.

As soon as your bankruptcy case is filed with the Court the “automatic stay” comes into effect. The “automatic stay” is much what it sounds like, it happens automatically upon filing of your case and it stays certain actions against you.

This means as soon as you file bankruptcy your creditors are legally prohibited from, foreclosing on your home, repossessing your car, sending bills, or making collection phone calls.

Of course, your creditors do not know you filed bankruptcy the very instant you file. The Court will send a letter to all the creditors listed in your Creditor Matrix informing them of your filing. This will likely take about two weeks.

If there is an urgent matter, such as a home foreclosure tomorrow, I will call and fax the law office handling the foreclosure to ensure they are aware of your bankruptcy filing and it does not take place.

Bankruptcy can help. As soon as your bankruptcy case is filed the “automatic stay comes into effect. (See 11 U.S.C. §362)

The automatic stay is much like the name implies, it happens automatically by the filing of your case, and it stays actions against you.

Simply put, as soon as you file bankruptcy your creditors are legally prohibited from calling any more.

Debt collectors are well known for using harassing, unethical, and immoral techniques to collect debt. There are both federal and state laws to protect an individual from these abuses.

In Massachusetts creditors, the original creditor, a debt collector agent or attorney for the creditor, are not permitted to call a debtor more than 2 times in a rolling 7 day period at home and no more than 2 times in a rolling 30 day period at a place other than at home.

If creditors are calling keep a detailed log of calls from the creditors. Record such information as: time and date of call, phone number the call came from, name of the creditor and debt collector agent. If you answered the call, who did you speak to, what did they say, how do you call them back?

If the creditor leaves a message on your voice mail, save it, and keep all telephone logs from the phone company.

If you have been sued you may have a counter claim against the creditor because of the harassing phone calls and you may also have a cause of action against them.

Robert