Before bankruptcy: Harassed by JM Adjustment

If you are behind with Navy Federal, JM Adjustment may come knocking on your door.  I think that violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

I’m a Virginia bankruptcy lawyer.  I know that people who are behind on their bills can be targets for harassment.  Lots of harassment can violate the FDCPA.  Some of those violations are borderline.   This one is blatant.

They hand a letter like this letter to whoever answers the door.    There are two big reasons why that violates the FDCPA.

First, if someone other than you answer the door, it’s an illegal communication about the debt to someone other than you.

Second, any letter from a debt collector needs to say that it’s a communication from a debt collector, and that any information obtained may be used to collect the debt.

Third, those check boxes on the bottom of the letter, about //Vehicle inspection and // Legal, are false or misleading.  They are designed to scare people into thinking their car is in some kind of jeopardy.

JM Adjustment claims they are not a debt collector.  They says they do “face-to-face borrower communications.” I think they are debt collector.