KANSAS CITY – The U.S. Court for the Western District of Missouri on Feb 23 awarded a St. Joseph man $5,065 after a debt collector went after him directly allegedly ignoring the attorney who he had hired to handle the issue.
Jesse Kincaid filed suit against National Credit Adjusters LLC on May 11, 2017 under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The law is meant to ensure that debt collectors refrain from using abusive, unfair or deceptive collection methods.
The plaintiff alleged violations of the FDCPA in regards to a personal debt owed for family and household services.
On Jan. 16, 2017 Kincaid hired an attorney to assist in the resolution of several debts and in March of that year the attorney sent notice of representation to creditors via certified mail. National Credit Adjustors received and signed the certified letter on March 20.
Despite having received notice that the plaintiff was represented by an attorney, the debt collection company allegedly sent a letter directly to Kincaid at his residence in April.
“The FDCPA states that a debt collector may not communicate with a consumer in connection with the collection of any debt----if the debt collector knows the consumer is represented by an attorney with respect to such debt,” the court brief read.
National Credit was required to answer the suit by June 27, 2017; however, the court brief noted that no timely response had been received from the defendant. In July, the court issued an order to show cause as to why the case should not be dismissed for failure to prosecute because no timely answer to the complaint had been filed and the plaintiff had not requested a default.
With no response to the complaint, the court concluded that a default judgement against National Credit was proper and that the plaintiff’s complaint was true.
“Based on the foregoing and considering the affidavits and evidence presented by the plaintiff, the court finds the defendant is liable to the plaintiff for statutory damages,” the court brief read.
The court awarded Kincaid $1,000 in FDCPA statutory damages, $3,600 in attorney fees and $465 in court costs.