I have been having problems with one of my creditors since filing last September. They were clearly notified, I checked PACER and saw that their mailing address was correct on the creditor matrix and that they were served with notice, but they continued to send bills, 3 or 4 a month sometimes! So I called their business office, told them of the BK filing, the case #, etc. I then followed up by having my lawyer fax them another copy of the creditor's notice. They continued to send bills. I sent them a cease and desist notice, return reciept required so I'd have evidence that I sent it.
Now they sold the claim to a collection agency! And not just any collection agency, but one that I have already had problems with trying to collect another debt that was sold immediately prior to filing, so they also already had notification of my filing, which I had to follow up with a phone call when they continued to try to collect after getting their notification, which I had to then follow up with a cease and desist letter with return reciept because they still kept sending us collections letters!
So there's no way the original creditor can say they didn't know they were in violation of the automatic stay when they sent this bill off to a collection agency, and no way the collection agency can say they didn't know about the BK stay either since I have proof I've communicated with them about my filing status already.
What's really stupid is that this collections letter offered to let me pay the bill at 50cents on the dollar, well I'm in a frigging 65% payback plan to unsecured creditors right now, if they'd just filed the darned paperwork, they would have had 65cents on the dollar minimum, maybe more because not all my creditors filed claims so I might end up doing a 75% payback by the time all is said and done!
Ok, that's the background on the situation. I plan to e-mail my attorney and see what they say about the whole thing. I was reading on the case law for violation of the stay and it seems to indicate that I would need to suffer actual damages before I could win any $ in an advesarial action against my creditor. Has anyone ever had a case where the creditor just wouldn't stop their letters and won an award against them? The only one I've heard of on here is where they reposessed the lady's van illegally, which of course was an actual damage suffered, where all it has cost me so far is aggrevation and some postage for return reciept mail.
Now they sold the claim to a collection agency! And not just any collection agency, but one that I have already had problems with trying to collect another debt that was sold immediately prior to filing, so they also already had notification of my filing, which I had to follow up with a phone call when they continued to try to collect after getting their notification, which I had to then follow up with a cease and desist letter with return reciept because they still kept sending us collections letters!
So there's no way the original creditor can say they didn't know they were in violation of the automatic stay when they sent this bill off to a collection agency, and no way the collection agency can say they didn't know about the BK stay either since I have proof I've communicated with them about my filing status already.
What's really stupid is that this collections letter offered to let me pay the bill at 50cents on the dollar, well I'm in a frigging 65% payback plan to unsecured creditors right now, if they'd just filed the darned paperwork, they would have had 65cents on the dollar minimum, maybe more because not all my creditors filed claims so I might end up doing a 75% payback by the time all is said and done!
Ok, that's the background on the situation. I plan to e-mail my attorney and see what they say about the whole thing. I was reading on the case law for violation of the stay and it seems to indicate that I would need to suffer actual damages before I could win any $ in an advesarial action against my creditor. Has anyone ever had a case where the creditor just wouldn't stop their letters and won an award against them? The only one I've heard of on here is where they reposessed the lady's van illegally, which of course was an actual damage suffered, where all it has cost me so far is aggrevation and some postage for return reciept mail.
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