| Volume 114 Number 2 |
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The People’s Lawyer’s Tip of the Day
In Texas, there is no wage garnishment except for child support, spousal maintenance, student and other government-backed loans, and certain taxes. A debt collector's threat to garnish your wages when he cannot do so, for example for a credit card debt, violates Texas and federal debt collection laws.
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Citibank Agrees to Pay $700 Million For Deceptive Practices
Citibank Agreed to pay $700 million in consumer relief in a Consent Order in a case filed against it by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB action alleged that City deceptively marketed credit monitoring products to credit card consumers by failing to inform them of the real cost of the programs, and signing consumers up for the products without specific authorization for the products or charges.
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Your Money
Do you or did you work for the Government? If so, there are some provisions that may affect your social security entitlements. The Windfall Elimination Provision (which applies to people who worked for employers who did not deduct social security taxes from their paychecks), and the Government Pension Offset (which affects spouse and widow/widower social security benefits for people receiving a government pension) might apply to you. Click here for more.
For the Lawyers
Debt collector may communicate with consumer even after cease and desist letter. The Eight Circuit held a debt collector did violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by sending a garnishment letter to the consumer after the consumer sent a cease and desist letter. The court noted that even if there were a cease letter, the communications did not violate it. A creditor may communicate with a debtor after receiving a cease letter “to notify the consumer that the debt collector or creditor may invoke specified remedies,” 15 U.S.C. 1692c(c)(2), which is what the garnishment letter was. Scheffler v. Messerli & Kramer P.A. Click here for more.