Raymond,
Good post on Lawyer requirements.
I'm going to study that tomorrow!!

Hey Folks,

I guess bill collectors isn't the correct terminology anymore:
Accord to BusinessWeek we should respectfully call bill collectors "debt counselors"!!

From the BusinessWeek (USA) article:
Don't call them bill collectors. Today, the industry has a softer term, "debt counselors," for the swelling ranks of people who are pounding the pavement trying to stem the tide of mortgage foreclosures. Says Steve Bailey, senior managing director at mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp. (CFC ), who oversees the company's $1.4 trillion portfolio: "You need to keep the revenue stream flowing and keep hope alive."

Collection Letters

5.01 (5) No collection letter shall be sent out over the signature of a lawyer, unless the letter is on the lawyer's letterhead, prepared under the lawyer's supervision, and sent from the lawyer's office.
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I've already been over this several times on the forum. As per my discussion with the Discipline Committee of the Law Society of Upper Canada, the only rule governing the conduct of a lawyer, when acting as a collector, is Rule 5.01(5) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. You are right; when it comes to collection activities, there are almost no binding rules on a lawyer. Lawyers know this; that's why lawyers have gotten into the bottom feeding scavenger business.

But your statement that they have an "arms length contact" with the collection agencies they work for is hogwash. For example, Deanna Natale was self-advertised as the in-house lawyer for Total Credit Recovery (until they had a difference of opinion).

As I pointed out last month, just because lawyers don't have to follow the requirements of the collections act, because they're not licensed as such, doesn't mean that they can mail out fraudulent letters and silly "drafts" with those stupid red seals in the upper left hand corner. I realize not all of them are fraudulent; but all are deliberately misleading.

If you have a complaint about a collection lawyer, you must contact the Law Society Of Upper Canada, not the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, as lawyers are not licensed by them or governed by the Collections Act. Even if they were, calling the provincial ministry office, as you so well know from your experience as a collector, would be a waste of time.

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"If you owe a bill, you should pay it, not paying legitimate debts keeps the bill collectors in business, call them collection agencies or whatever you like, most of them are honest law abiding citizens like each of you on this forum."

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A collection agent is not a collection agency - Ha, Ha, Ho, Tee, Hee, Guffaw, Ho Ho Ho, Ha Ha -----That's a good one, best joke of the year!! --------- Ha Ha!!!!!

The dynamic of the new economy is creating a polarization of incomes with a consequent disappearance of the middle class as we have known it and resulting in an ever increasing percentage of "the working poor." I discussed this in more detail in several other posts such as the Brenda Kelly/Andrew Coyne article. That's why the MEDIAN wage, when corrected for inflation, has been steadily decreasing for over 20 years. Like duh! The people can't affford to pay; it's not that they don't want to.

This situation should provide many good feeding seasons for your not so fine feathered friends.

Ray