A Debt Collection Abuse Lawyer Can Help Spare You the Humiliation of Debtors’ Examinations
There are probably a lot of things you miss about being a kid, such as not having any financial responsibilities and having an unlimited capacity for junk food, but you probably don’t miss your parents butting into your business and auditing your personal belongings if they suspected you of lying. It was humiliating when your mother took all the crumpled worksheets and neglected textbooks out of your backpack when she thought you were not being truthful when you said that you didn’t have any homework or interrogated you when she found unauthorized candy wrappers in the trash cans. Debtors examinations are like that, except on a much larger scale. Pennsylvania law allows creditors to make you answer questions about your finances under oath, and this process is about as beneficial to borrowers as you are imagining it being. If creditors are circling around you, a Philadelphia debt collection abuse lawyer can help you avoid the indignity of debtors’ examinations.
Debtors’ Examinations Are as Scary as They Sound
Anything with the word “examination” in its name can’t be pleasant, but in some ways, debtors’ examinations are even more painful and nerve-wracking than the medical and academic examinations most of us have undergone at some point. A debtor’s examination is part of a business-to-consumer lawsuit, in which the creditor’s attorney takes your deposition, which means that the attorney asks you questions under oath, which means that it is a crime to make false statements during the deposition. You have the right to have your attorney present, though, and your attorney can advise you about whether or not the creditor is within its rights to ask you each question.
A debtors’ examination is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. If you answer truthfully about how much money you earn from your job and your gigs, how many times you bought food from Chipotle in the past year when you could have been eating instant ramen and putting every spare penny toward your debt, and all the times your family and friends floated you some money to help you make ends meet, the creditor will use that information against you. It could strengthen the creditor’s case against you and help them get a garnishment.
If debtor’s examinations sound unfair, they are. You don’t ask the credit card companies under oath why they charge you such enormous fees since they pay so little in taxes. The recent surge in business to consumer lawsuits is a disturbing trend, in general. The best way to protect yourself is to call a debt collection abuse lawyer as soon as a creditor sues you, or even before.
Let Us Help You Today
A Philadelphia debt collection abuse attorney can help you avoid a debtor’s examination by stopping debt collection abuse as early in the process as possible, perhaps even before the creditor sues you. Contact Louis S. Schwartz at CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.
