The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act limits the places and times for a collector to contact an Oregon or Washington consumer. The Act also severely limits third-party contacts and bars a collector from contacting a consumer represented by counsel.
The presumption is that any phone call received between nine p.m and eight a.m was at an inconvenient or unusual time. Because many collectors, calling from out of state like to raise this defense–“I had no idea it was six in the morning, it’s nine a.m. where I am calling from–it is important to document your calls and note that you let the creditor know about the inconvenience of their calls and instructions to stop.
With respect to inconvenient places, the workplace stands out as a fundamentally inconvenient place for a call for many different kinds of workers, including nurses, teachers and restaurant workers. With respect to all other places, the question is whether the collector knew or should have known that the call was inconvenient. WIth respect to the workplace, once the consumer requests that the debt collector cease calls to the workplace, the collector is barred from doing so.
Document your phone conversations with your collectors and contact our offices if you have any questions at all. We would be happy to meet you at either of our Washington offices in Seattle and Vancouver or at either of our Oregon offices in Portland or Salem.
