In recent news it was revealed that top legal prosecutors in Louisiana and Washington made announcements of actions they had taken against accounts receivable management firms and their owners and managers.

Louisiana’s attorney general James Caldwell announced on Friday that his office had gotten a hold of injunctions against two collection agencies and their owners. On the same day, Rob McKenna, Washington’s Attorney General said that his office had settled charges with a collection company that had promised to stay on the straightened arrow. In a press release, Caldwell’s office said that in late December they had obtained an injunction against Bush and Kennedy, Inc, a Baton Rouge based collection agency. The order he won placed restrictions on the business, banning them from operating further, and specifically, ordered that two of the firm’s principals, Quay W. Pattott Jr, and William S. Fesguson were banned from conducting business together.

Late last week, a judge slammed Ferguson and Parrott with added injunctions as per the request of Caldwell’s office. Ferguson is banned from using deceptive and unfair acts and practices at his current place of business, Franklin, Grant and Associates Incorporated, a collection agency based out of Metairie Louisiana. Parrott is completely restricted against conducting any new business at his new place of work, Metairie based Halsey and Associates, LLC.

McKenna’s Washington office said that Topco Financial Services Inc, a Washington based collection agency agreed not to threaten, harass or curse out consumers as part of a settlement. The collection company must pay around $38,000 in legal fees and penalties. An additional $82,000 in fees and penalties were suspended pending that the company agrees with the settlement terms.

As per the agreement, Topco is restricted from harassing, intimidating, threatening and embarrassing debtors, including using profanity. They are banned from implying that failure to pay a delinquent bill will result in suspension, a revocation, or impairment of the debtor’s driver’s license. They are no longer allowed to threaten debtors with impairment of their credit rating. However, the company is allowed to legally report debts to credit reporting agencies.

Mallory Megan works for a debt collection agency. She also writes stories on business and finance, consumer spending and collection agencies. You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

In the counties of Butler and Hamilton, Ohio, the sheriff’s departments attempted to obtain money from inmates to pay for the cost of their stay at jail. An all around failure, the program closed a few weeks ago after it cost taxpayers $69,000 to settle a federal lawsuit. The state auditor halted the program because it was not making any income.

Despite this fact, these counties are now discussing re-starting the program by collecting booking fees. Financial analysts remain dubious. Even in the best case scenarios, the policy may not be lucrative at all as many prisoners that end up in jail have no money.

Lawsuits were the issue that originally put an end to the program. An Ohio jail that was in the vicinity began charging booking fees at a hundred dollars and an additional $67.77 daily charge for every day held. But federal lawsuits against Hamilton and Butler counties began the end to “pay to stay” programs. The main issue at hand was figuring out who had to pay the fee.

Ohio legislation permits a county to charge people in jail for room and board, dental and medical treatment, property damage and a onetime booking fee. People in jail have to be billed at the end of their stay, but the key provision of the law is that convicted inmates only could be charged. The District Judge said that it was unconstitutional to take these fines from inmates who were not yet convicted.

Hamilton County was taken to court in 2000 and was advised to refund about one million dollars in prison fees and to pay $150,000 for an educational program for prisoners. In 2001, Butler County was sued too. By 2003, the grand total of money that was returned to settle law costs was $63,846 to 2,431 inmates. Also, the county was ordered to pay a $5,000 donation to the Legal aid Society after officials did not add the agreed upon ten percent interest on refund checks.

Even though the plan to charge pay to stay fees to prisoners has failed, and has cost taxpayers more money than the program is worth, the Sheriff’s department is still considering measures to obtain more money from the jail. Charging booking fees, and taking in out of state prisoners are ideas that they are now thinking about.

Mallory Megan is employed by a debt collection agency. Also she writes articles on business, finance, the credit industry and collection agencies. Get a totally unique version of this article from our article submission service

In today’s bad economy the changes seem huge. Just last year a few tax laws were etched out to save us in dire situations. These are a few new tax laws that you should know about.

The first deals with new tax deductions and new car sales. If you bought a brand new vehicle, including a car, motorcycle, light truck or motor home, on or after February 16th 2009 and by December 31st 2009, any sales tax paid might be seen as a deduction.

In 2009 and 2010 the American Opportunity Credit is replaced by the Hope Education credit. This new credit is worth $2,500 for each student, this is based on the first $4,000 of qualifying educational expenses.

Homeowners that make improvements to their existing homes that are energy efficient can claim a credit of 30 percent of the cost of all of the upgrades, up to a maximum credit of $1,500. This covers things such as adding insulation, energy efficient exterior windows and energy efficient air conditioning and heating systems.

Last year was tough for a lot of workers, and layoffs hit record levels. But unemployment compensation is considered taxable income. However, now, the first $2,400 in benefits is excluded from income.

Because of the Bicycle Commuter Act, cyclists will receive reimbursement of workplace transportation costs into a tax favored account and bikers can use the money to put towards purchase of a bike, bike lock, helmet, bike parking fees and bike maintenance in general.

Also, if you pay your income tax by credit or debit card, you can deduct the convenience fee that will be charged for the transaction. The card fee, as well as any other IRS approved miscellaneous deductions must exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income before they will count. Despite the fact that this measure limits the value of this break for many, filers with substantial expenses to claim should be sure to add the card fee.

Mallory McGuinness is employed by a debt collection agency. Also she writes stories on business, finance, consumer spending and collection agencies. You are welcome to reprint this article – but get your own unique content version here.

The debt collection administrations have begun proceedings against former builder Boaz Yona, who hasn’t been paying compensation to home-buyers who were left without a roof over their heads or money in their pockets when his construction company Heftsiba collapsed. Yona was convicted in November 2008 on a numerous number of offenses, of that which included fraud, and theft, of that which left many apartment buyers without money and the home they paid for.

Yona meanwhile requested a leave from prison, a motion on which the authorities are not smiling. The authorities may also try to block his eligibility for an early release from prison for good behavior after serving two-thirds of his sentence. Heftsiba’s former chief executive and owner is serving a reduced seven-year sentence for his crimes, as part of a plea bargain.

Under the plea bargain, he agreed to pay victims NIS 4 million – an amount the court doubled in Yona’s final sentencing. The first NIS 4 million was deposited with the court before the plea bargain, and has already been paid out to dozens of families that constitute the core of Yona’s victims. But the former top executive has refused to pay the additional NIS 4 million he was ordered to pay within 60 days of his sentencing, and has appealed the sentence. The debt, meanwhile, has risen to more than NIS 4.2 million due to interest and fines.

Almost two weeks ago, Yona asked the Tel Aviv District Court to order the prison authorities to elaborate the reason he had been declined leave. His lawyer has sought to have the debt payments delayed, reduce the late fees and spread out the payments. The debt collection authorities rejected his request to delay the payments, but agreed to consider spreading them out.

A senior official says bank accounts and property belonging to Yona would be seized, although the chances of collecting the debt this way are slim because Yona is bankrupt. Nevertheless, the authorities will keep careful tabs on Yona’s debt repayment and prison leaves, as well as his appearance before the committee to decide on an early release for good behavior. This would prevent him from benefiting from prisoner’s rights until Heftsiba victims have been reimbursed.

Yona’s lawyer Yair Golan said earlier this week that Yona’s appeal of the additional NIS 4 million has yet to be heard. He added that the court was aware at the time of the sentencing that Yona was bankrupt, and that the debt could not be collected. Golan rejected the argument that Yona’s leave from prison would disturb his victims, saying there was no material reason to revoke a basic right of a prisoner whose behavior has been exemplary.

Mallory is employed by a debt collection agency. Also, she composes stories on business, finance, and collections. .

A Grand Jury in Suffolk County, Mass. yesterday returned indictments against the president of a collection agency for supposedly stealing millions of dollars worth of excise taxes from the City of Boston.

Stephen Colahan, of Beverly, Mass. is charged with Larceny over $250 by Continuous Scheme and Procurement Fraud. Prosecutors assert that Colahan, over the course of five years, moved more than $2.7 million from a City of Boston bank account to his own companys account.

According to a press release from the Massachusetts Attorney General, from 1995 until June 2007 Colahans company, Walker Associates, Inc., was under contract with the City of Boston to collect delinquent motor vehicle excise taxes from Boston residents. Under the terms of the contract, Walker was required to pay over to the city 100 percent of the taxes and statutory fees collected; the city would then pay Walker Associates a percentage of the fees the company had collected. Each week, Walker Associates was required to pay over to the city the amount of the previous weeks cash payments and cleared checks, and to provide a paper and electronic report detailing the amounts collected from each taxpayer and the date of collection.

Beginning in June 2001, Colahan allegedly began taking money out of the bank account into which his company deposited all of the citys tax and fee collections, and using that money to cover Walkers business expenses. Authorities allege that for the next five years, Colahan frequently stole from the citys account. From June 2001 through August 2006, authorities allege that Colahan shifted over $2.7 million to his own company account.

In October 2007, the states attorney generals office began an inquisition after the matter had been referred by the Boston Police Department and the City of Boston.

A Suffolk Grand Jury returned indictments against Colahan Tuesday. He is scheduled for arraignment on May 12, 2009, in Suffolk Superior Court.

Mallory works for a debt collection agency. She also composes articles on business, finance, and collections. .

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced late Tuesday that his office has attained a deal with three Western New York debt collection agencies through which the businesses will pay a total of $245,000 in penalties and costs and agree to change some of their collection techniques.

The three companies — Creditors Interchange Receivable Management, LLC, Capital Management Services, LP and Tri-Financial, LLC — have agreed, in separate agreements, to substantially reform their business practices in order to be in full conformity with the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and New York’s Debt Collection Procedures Act, according to Cuomos office.

The action comes less than a week after the New York Attorney Generals office began broadcasting a sweeping investigation into the practices of accounts receivable management companies in the state of New York

Cuomo said in a press release that his office will continue to investigate the myriad deceptive practices that debt collection companies, debt settlement companies and others employ as a means to exploit consumers who are already down on their luck. He urged other companies involved in debt collection and debt settlement to follow the example of the three companies named Tuesday.

Cuomos office said that it relied on consumer complaints against the companies in the cases.

As a part of the agreement, the companies must alter their practices to make it easier for consumers to file complaints against the company and employees. The companies must provide a direct link on their Web sites to complaint forms and create and maintain a disciplinary history database for their collectors.

According to Cuomos assertion, consumers claimed that the companies failed to provide debt validation, engaged in third party disclosure, contacted debtors at work, threatened legal action when none was pending and other violations.

Mallory works for a debt collection agency. She also writes articles on business and finance, and collections. .

At a press conference Tuesday in Buffalo, N.Y., New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that his office has shut down a debt collection operation in Western New York that included at least nine collection agencies owned by Tobias Boyland.

Cuomo stated that his office carried out search warrants on 4 of Boylands businesses and his residence early Tuesday morning. When investigators executed the warrant at Boylands home, they located a loaded gun, prompting the Erie County Sheriff to place him into custody. Boyland is a convicted felon and may face further weapons charges in Erie County.

Boylands operation was featured heavily in a Dateline NBC segment that was broad-casted in March. Cuomo remarked that a Dateline crew was present at one of the offices raided Tuesday. The attorney generals office alleged that Boylands operation annoyed and browbeat consumers into paying old debts by threatening jail time, posing as police officers and worse. According to Mitra Hormozi, special deputy chief of staff to the attorney general, These are some of the worst tactics we’ve seen.

“Plain and simple, this company was run by people who lied, bullied and preyed on vulnerable Americans struggling to resolve their financial situation,” said Cuomo in a statement. “Pretending to be a police officer, threatening to throw consumers in jail – these practices are as despicable as they are illegal. My Office will continue to relentlessly root out these kinds of tactics and shut down unscrupulous companies that violate the rights of consumers across New York and the entire nation.”

Cuomo said that Boylands debt collection operations in the Buffalo area had been shut down, including offices running under the names Central Resource Management, Final Claims Asset Locator’s, Final Control Asset Locator’s, Interchange Payment Solutions, Next Step Services, Portfolio Asset Assurance, Silverbay Services, and Teleport. As well as 3 others, ” 2 with criminal records ” associated to Boyland were named in the suit.

The attorney generals office declared in May that it had closed two collection agencies and subpoenaed 20 others in what they called a statewide inquisition into debt collection companies. Less than a week later, the office said that it had come to an agreement with three more collection agencies under investigation.

In June, Cuomo said that his office will continue to investigate the myriad deceptive practices that debt collection companies, debt settlement companies and others employ as a means to exploit consumers who are already down on their luck.

Mallory is employed by a debt collection agency. Also, she writes stories on business and finance, and collections. .

Debt collectors could be dealing with tougher rules on their ability to collect money if bills proposed by the governor and New York state Assembly ever get passed by the state Senate. Before the state Senate went into a eventual dead end, the state Assembly passed a series of laws steered at cutting down on debt collector abuses that include threatening phone calls, harassment and intimidation. In addition, Gov. David Paterson has proposed similar measures to protect the public from abusive consumer debt collection practices.

The proposals would establish the Consumer Credit Fairness Act, which would reduce the current statute of limitations on personal debt from six to three years and would prohibit debt collectors from recovering debts that exceed the statute of limitations. It would also require debt collection firms to provide consumers with a written Debtors Bill of Rights that details the manner in which a debt collection company can recover debt and informs customers of frequent dishonest practices.

Debt collection company’s would also be required to acquire a license of operation from the state of New York and would require firms to present a summary of the methods used to confirm the exactness of debts it seeks to recover, a clear record-keeping policy and whether it intends to sell debts. Don L. Hochler, an East Meadow attorney, said the projected statutes are a fair way to deal with abuses that have grown more common with the economic downturn.

According to the governors office, there were almost 3,900 complaints made to the state about debt collectors in the past four years. The consumer typically had no idea about any of the changes in debt holders and didnt know who it was that was trying to collect on the debt.

The proposals would require that collectors conform with the standards of the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which restricts calls to consumers to between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. Kevin Schlosser, chairman of the litigation and dispute resolution law practice at Meyer, Suozzi, English & Klein in Garden City, said more people are paying attention to debt collection practices because of the economy.

Debt collectors first job is to communicate with consumers and answer consumer problems, Cherner said. Proposals that only restrict communication will only cause a rise in complaints.

Mallory McGuinness works for a collections agency that works with a debt collection lawyer. She also does stories on business, finance, the credit industry and collections agencies.

A Debt consolidation program starts with evaluating your financial situation. This process involves an in depth analysis of your financial standing. That analysis will help you to evaluate whether it is better to file for bankruptcy or go for a debt consolidation program. A debt consolidation analysis will estimate the debtor’s potential savings through the program.

When a deal is finalized with the debt consolidation company and the debtor. The next step is for one of the counselors to contact the creditors and work out a reduction in the interest rates and monthly payments at an amount that will be affordable to the debtor.

Through arbitration with the creditors, the debt consolidation company for the most part marks down or cut out the interest charged. The balance owed to-wards the creditors is reduced and they can give the debtor a reduction in even the principal amount.

The Debt consolidation program will also aid the debtors by getting the creditors to halt the legal actions which they were bringing against the debtor which means they can no longer consume the debtor’s income nor can they take the debtor to court. Also this starts bringing up the credit rating of the debtor because now the debtor is repaying the debts under the new agreement.

With this method of debt relief, the debtor will no longer have to answer embarrassing phone calls from his creditors. The debtor will not receive any bills or pay the creditors directly. The debt consolidation program will directly take control over the creditors. The debtor will just need to pay the debt consolidation company a single amount every month according to the budget which was agreed upon with the debtors. So there is no need for any interaction with the creditors.

Most of the time these systems are free to the debtor since the fees are paid by the creditors, as they would rather acquire something in return than lose all the money that the debtor owes them. Also, programs like this work for those with good or bad credit. It is a great solution for debt reduction to use a debt services company or consolidator that uses this method.

Mallory works for a debt collection agency. She also writes stories on business and finance, and collections. .

Last month, Manuel and Luz Fausto won one of the largest collection awards documented in the last couple of years under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) against Credigy Services Corporation. A California jury awarded the Faustos $500,000 in damages stemming from harassment by Credigy collectors. Of the sum, granted $100,000 was for actual damages the Faustos experienced, while $400,000 was in punitive damages, granted for malicious and reckless disregard of the couples rights. According to one of the Faustos lawyers, David Humphreys of Humphreys Wallace Humphreys, P.C., and the case stemmed from a debt on a Wells Fargo charge card opened in 1992.

Humphreys stated that the Faustos regularly paid the account balance on the credit card, but the balance kept increasing. The Faustos then requested that the account be frozen, but their request was declined by a local Wells Fargo branch. Humphreys said the Faustos received help in paying the balance from a local business that promised to arbitrate a discounted payoff of credit card balances. The Faustos were under the impression that the debt owed to Wells Fargo was paid off with two money orders in the late 1990s. In 2006, Credigy contacted the Faustos with a demand of almost $17,000. Humphreys noted that a Brazilian associate of Credigy made over 90 threatening calls and sent numerous letters to the Fausto home, even after a cease and desist notice was sent to the company.

Luz Fausto recorded the last phone call made by the debt collectors, which documents false claims that threatened the Faustos livelihood. Credigy counter sued the Faustos on the basis that the debt collection call was confidential. Humphreys said that Credigys collection efforts did not end until a lawsuit was filed. Humphreys claimed that the jury award was the largest given to a consumer in a case brought under the FDCPA.

Manny Newburger, an attorney for debt collectors fears that consumer lawyers may make the false assumption that all juries will award large damages because it was awarded in this case. The Fausto case is fact-specific, Newburger stated. In the vast majority of cases there is little or no evidence of actual damages presented by the consumer. This is one reason why other debt collection lawyers are not willing to let the verdict in this case affect their evaluation of other cases, he noted.

Newburger said that the defendants in this case sued for invasion of privacy, a common defense but also, a theory that is asserted in a lot of the cases filed around the country involving alleged collection abuse and the jury ruled against the defendant in the invasion of privacy claim. According to Newburger, the verdict was based on state legislation. This is a California specific case, he said.

Newburger argues that the only thing the Fausto case means is that the consumer won. He does not think the size of the award will entice more consumers to sue debt collection agencies. I think this verdict is indicative of what this jury thought of this particular case, but not of anything else, Newburger said. As for the size of the jury award, Newburger said that he had heard of far larger rulings in FDCPA cases.

The ruling for the legal penalty is still undecided. Once decided, a judgment could be granted for any sum up to $1,000 for Credigys violations of the FDCPA. It is unknown if Credigy will appeal the ruling. The lawyers for the debt collection agency could not be contacted.

Mallory is employed by a debt collection agency. Also, she writes stories on business, finance, and collections. .