Is Ozark Capital Corporation Calling You?*

Is Ozark Capital Corporation calling you? Here’s what you need to know.

Financial problems can take a serious toll on a person’s mental and physical health and affect the quality of their personal relationships. It doesn’t matter who you owe the money to -student loans, mortgages, credit cards, or medical bills. When you can’t keep up the payments and your creditors turn the accounts over to third-party debt collectors who start calling you night and day, you may feel so overwhelmed and harassed that personal bankruptcy seems like the only way out.

Your Rights Under the FDCPA

Legally, debt collectors are not permitted to upset you to that point. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, prohibits the use of unethical and abusive collection tactics like the following:

• Failing or refusing to identify themselves as debt collectors trying to collect a debt from you
• Calling you several times per day
• Contacting you by telephone outside of the 8:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. time frame, or at work when your employer does not allow such calls
• Cursing at you and making threats they cannot legally carry out, such as having you arrested
• Talking to your friends, neighbors, and co-workers about the debt
• Ignoring a formal request to stop contacting you
• Calling you directly even after you’ve hired an attorney to represent you in the matter

The FDCPA has been in effect since 1977, when the US Congress passed it to combat rampant abuse by third-party debt collectors, but several agencies deliberately ignore it and use whatever methods achieve the end they’re looking for: getting your money, whether they’re entitled to it or not.

Alleged FDCPA Violations

Ozark Capital Corporation is a small collection agency located in Little Rock, Arkansas. It was established in 1996 and specializes in purchasing and collecting ‘junk’ debt, or debt that has been charged-off by the original creditor. A search of the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) website as well as consumer complaint websites turns up several cases involving Ozark Capital Corporation and alleged violations of the FDCPA.

According to PACER, sometime prior to March 8, 2011, a credit card debt that the plaintiff had allegedly owed to US Bank was purchased by Ozark Capital Corporation, which proceeded to file a civil warrant and affidavit against him. In their collection lawsuit, Ozark Capital Corporation alleged that they were the assignee of US Bank, although they allegedly produced no evidence to support the claim. The amount they demanded ($3,234.85 plus $143.57 in interest) was also allegedly not the amount the plaintiff owed under the original agreement with US Bank.

The complaint that the plaintiff’s attorney filed with the US District Court accused Ozark Capital Corporation of the following FDCPA violations:

• Using false, deceptive, and misleading representations in connection with collection of the debt (15 U.S.C. § 1692e(8))
• Attempting to collect amounts not expressly authorized by the original agreement that created the debt (15 U.S.C. 1692f(1))
• Failure to disclose in initial written communications with the plaintiff that they were debt collectors seeking to collect a debt, and any information would be used for that purpose (15 U.S.C. 1692e(11))
• Attempting to collect a debt in Tennessee when the company was not licensed to collect debts by the Tennessee Collection Service Board (U.S.C. §§ 1692e, 1692e(5), 1692e(10), and 1692f)

The matter was later settled.

The phone number associated with Ozark Capital Corporation is 1-501-374-1300. If you see a call come in from this number, it means that someone is trying to contact you about a debt. If the amount they demand is inconsistent with the total you believe you owe, or the company does not prove their right to collect the debt, contact a consumer attorney.

If you decide to sue Ozark Capital Corporation and win, you could receive statutory damages of $1,000 per FDCPA violation as well as actual damages (e.g. pain and suffering), court fees, and attorney costs. An attorney will help you safeguard the rights that the law grants to you when it comes to debts you owe and how they may be collected.

*Case taken from PACER (www.pacer.gov). File number is case 2:12-cv-00095-RLJ, from United States District Court, Eastern District of Tennessee, at Greeneville

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 Ozark Capital Corporation, or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.