Is Palisades Collection LLC Calling You?*

Is Palisades Collection LLC calling you? Here’s what you need to know.

When job loss, illness, or some other setback causes you to fall behind in your bill payments, there’s always a risk that your creditors will turn the accounts over to a third-party debt collector or charge them off entirely and sell them to a junk debt buyer. In either case, it won’t be long before collection calls begin.

A lot of debt collectors will do anything to get your money. This situation was especially intense over forty years ago, when thousands of Americans opted for personal bankruptcy to make the harassment stop.

Your Rights Under the FDCPA

The US Congress passed the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) in 1977 to protect consumers from unethical collection tactics like the following:

• Swearing and yelling to intimidate someone into paying
• Calling at all hours of the day and night
• Calling people at work
• Threatening debtors with arrest and imprisonment
• Talking to uninvolved parties such as the person’s friends, family, and co-workers about the debt

Under the FDCPA, a debt collector cannot call you at work after you’ve made it clear that such contact is not allowed, or call you before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. your time. It is also illegal for them to threaten you with arrest, imprisonment, and other consequences they cannot legally take.

Alleged FDCPA Violations

Unfortunately, not all debt collectors respect FDCPA guidelines. Palisades Collection, LLC is a New Jersey-based collection agency that acts on behalf of its affiliate Palisades Acquisition XVI, LLC. It buys old debt from banks, credit card companies, medical institutions, and other creditors for pennies on the dollar and then try to collect the full amount.

Records kept by the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) website include multiple instances of Palisades Collection, LLC being sued for allegedly breaching the FDCPA.

In and around February 2011, two New Jersey residents began receiving calls from Palisades Collection, LLC debt collectors, who were trying to collect a debt from someone named Joseph R. Jackson. These automated calls, which continued from February until September, were repetitive and, in the opinion of the residents, harassing.

Soon after the communications began, one of the residents followed the instructions of the automated caller and pressed the button as instructed to indicate that she is not “Joseph R. Jackson”. They took this measure at least five times since the harassing and repetitive telephone calls began, but the communications continued.

On August 30, 2011, through their attorney, they sent a letter to Palisades Collection, LLC via certified Mail, notifying the company that they were represented by an attorney, and demanding that all calls cease. Despite confirmed receipt of this and other letters, Palisades Collection, LLC allegedly continued to place harassing telephone calls to the two demanding that “Joseph R. Jackson” pay the alleged debt.

The complaint that the two and their attorney filed with the US District Court accused Palisades Collection, LLC of the following FDCPA violations:

• Communicating with the two after it knew or should have known that they were represented by an attorney ( § 1692c(a)(2))
• Disregarding a written cease communications request (§ 1692c(c))
• Harassing them in an attempt to collect a debt (§ 1692d)
• Causing a telephone to ring repeatedly and continuously (§ 1692d(5))
• Continuously contacting the two despite their repeated notifications that they were not the alleged debtor (§ 1692f )
• Attempting to collect interest and fees that were not authorized by the agreement creating the debt or permitted by law ( §1692f(1)
• Failing to notify the them within five days of its initial communication that they had a right to dispute the alleged debt for thirty days, and demand verification (§ 1692g(a))

The matter was later settled.

The phone number for Palisades Collection, LLC is 1-800-873-5648. If you get incessant automated calls from this number and they ignore a written request to cease communications, contact a consumer attorney. If you take the company to court and win, you may be compensated up to $1,000 per FDCPA violation as well as actual damages (stress, etc), court costs, and attorney’s fees.

An experienced attorney can help you ensure that for Palisades Collection, LLC, harassing you is an expensive mistake.

*Case taken from PACER (www.pacer.gov). File number is Case 2:11-cv-05814-KSH-PS from United States District Court, District of New Jersey

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 Palisades Collection, LLC, or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.