Is SRA Associates Calling You?*

Is SRA Associates Inc Calling You? Protect yourself!

Most of us will fall behind on a debt payment at some point, if we haven’t already. But if you miss too many, your creditors may eventually send the accounts to a third-party debt collector.

If this happens to you, don’t panic or do anything extreme. As an indebted consumer you have rights that limit what third-party debt collectors can say and do to get you to settle the account.

Your Rights Under the FDCPA

If a debt collector is being abusive towards you in any way, they are breaking the law. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, or FDCPA, prohibits third-party debt collectors from using unethical or unfair means to collect a debt.

Under the FDCPA, a debt collector is breaking the law if they do the following:

• Calling you before 8:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. in your time zone
• Telling you that you have committed a crime and will be arrested if you don’t pay
• Reporting inaccurate information to the credit bureau
• Calling your friends, coworkers, and neighbors and discussing your debt with them
• Trying to collect an amount that is not authorized by law or the original creditor agreement
• Threatening legal action they have no intention of taking

Company Profile: SRA Associates Inc

SRA Associates Inc is a collection agency located in Hi Nella, New Jersey. It was founded in 1993, has 100 to 249 employees and is managed by its President, John Chiara.

It is also a member of the American Collectors Association. Files retained by the PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) website confirm that SRA Associates Inc has been accused of violating the FDCPA during certain debt collection attempts.

Alleged Violations by SRA Associates Inc

Beginning in or around mid to late July 2015, a New Jersey resident allegedly began receiving repetitive calls from SRA Associates Inc, sometimes up to three times a day.

She later claimed that the company repeatedly failed to identify itself as a debt collector attempting to collect a debt, and that it failed to send written notification of her rights to dispute the debt and/or to request verification of the debt, as well as providing the amount of the debt and the name of the original creditor.

Each time SRA Associates Inc called, the plaintiff asked the representative to stop, as she was receiving calls during work hours, which was prohibited by her employer.

When the calls allegedly continued, she finally hired an attorney and filed a lawsuit accusing SRA Associates Inc of violating the FDCPA in the following ways:

• Calling at a time or place which is known or which should be known to be inconvenient
• Calling during her hours of employment after being advised she was unable to receive personal calls.
• Placing repeated and continuous harassing calls to Ms. Drew after she explicitly told the agency to stop
• Failing to identify itself during its initial communication with her as well as, subsequent communications thereafter
• Using false representation or deceptive means to collect a debt
• Failing to send a debt validation letter within five days after its initial communication with her

The matter was later dismissed.

Hire an Attorney

The phone numbers for SRA Associates Inc are 1-800-735-0552 and 1-856-755-0500. If either one appears on your caller ID, be aware that a debt collector may be calling for you.

If they keep calling your workplace despite requests to stop, fail to identify themselves as debt collectors in each call, or omit the required debt validation letter, hire a consumer attorney.

Such actions and omissions violate the FDCPA, and a judge could fine the debt collector to pay you $1,000 per FDCPA violation as well as attorney’s fees, court costs, and any actual damages. No matter what the debt balance is, your rights must be respected, or an agency risks an expensive fine.

*Case taken from PACER (www.pacer.gov). File number is 1:15-cv-06087-JEI-KMW 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 SRA Associates Inc, or any other third-party collection agency, you may not be entitled to any compensation.