Are You Being Called By Harris & Zide?*

Are debt collectors calling you constantly? Are they telling you that nonpayment can cause you to lose your driver’s license and even your house?

This type of consumer bullying is completely illegal, and you can make it stop.

Your Rights Under the FDCPA

The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, gives you the right to dispute a debt and tell a debt collector to stop contacting you. It also prohibits actions like the following.

• Swearing and using racist or sexist language
• Telling you that by failing to pay the debt, you have committed a crime
• Discussing the debt with anyone except you, your spouse, or your attorney
• Calling you before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. in your time zone
• Demanding amounts that are inflated by ‘service charges’
• Calling you several times per day using an autodialer

Company Profile: Harris & Zide

If you are being called by Harris & Zide, here is some more information about the firm and its operations.

Harris & Zide is a debt collection law office in South Pasadena, California. It opened for business in 1988, has fewer than 10 employees, and is managed by owner Flint C. Zide.

Searchable legal records at the PACER website reveal that consumers who believed that they were being harassed by Harris & Zide went to court to enforce their rights.

Alleged Violations against Harris & Zide

According to information on the PACER website, on or around March 7, 2008, Harris & Zide tried to collect a debt from a California consumer by filing a lawsuit against him in the Superior Court of California.

He claimed that his last payment on the debt had been years earlier, putting it outside the statute of limitations.

The following April, Harris & Zide allegedly called the consumer’s wife and told her that a suit had been filed but refused to provide the case number, the amount owed, or the name of the original creditor.

She believed that the caller was presenting themselves as an attorney, so she called the office and asked for the caller’s bar number.

Supervisor allegedly told her that the caller in question was a legal assistant and stated, “It is very hard to find good legal assistants. We basically grab these people off the streets with no training.”

Feeling harassed by Harris & Zide, the consumer took legal action against the firm for:

• Using false, deceptive, and misleading means to collect a debt
• Using unfair and unconscionable means to collect a debt
• Attempting to collect a debt outside the statute of limitations

The matter was later settled.

Hire a Consumer Lawyer

The phone numbers for this debt collection law office are:

• 1-626-799-8444
• 1-800-381-0003

If either of them appear on your caller ID, it means that you are being called by Harris & Zide.

If they force you to incur legal costs by suing you over an uncollectible debt, hire a consumer lawyer and file a claim against Harris & Zide.

You could potentially receive $1,000 per FDCPA violation. No matter how much they want your money, debt collectors must obey the law when trying to collect it, or expensive penalties result.

Additional Resources

• What Are Damages in an FDCPA Claim
• Connect With FDCPA Attorneys

*Case taken from PACER (pacer.gov). Case 3:08-cv-00811-DMS-LSP from the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.

*Disclaimer: The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be constructed as legal advice. If you file a claim against Harris & Zide or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.