Consumer Protection

There are a lot of Consumer Protection Laws in Mississippi that have been designed to protect individuals which can be acted upon outside of bankruptcy as well as within a bankruptcy. Bankruptcy Law is actually the strongest set of consumer protection laws we have available. It is also a Constitutional Right.

If your consumer rights have been violated, the first thing we need to do is sit down together, work out a plan, and a strategy to provide the best resolution for you.

If lawsuits are filed within a bankruptcy they are called an Adversary Proceeding and will be handled in Bankruptcy Court by the same Bankruptcy Judge assigned to your bankruptcy case. There are a lot of advantages to this approach.

Here are some examples of Adversary Proceedings that could be filed within a bankruptcy case:

• Recover garnished funds
• Creditor for revealed DOB and/or SS #
• Creditor refuses to return repossessed property
• Creditor continues to contact client
• Creditor refuses to provide title to vehicle
• Creditor reports inaccurate or false information on credit report

There are also adversaries (lawsuits) that can be filed to address “Discharge Violations”, meaning that your rights have been violated after you have completed your bankruptcy. An example is when debt collectors continue to harass you regarding a debt that was dealt with through your bankruptcy case.

It is common for creditors to sell their debt for pennies on the dollar to “debt buyers” who then try to collect on the debt. Your debt may be sold many times over – have you received letters from multiple collection companies regarding the same old utility bill? It is a violation of your bankruptcy discharge for continued efforts to collect on debts discharged in bankruptcy. I have had clients harassed to the point of hospitalization before they called me to let me know what was happening.

You have rights and your rights are important and should be addressed immediately. There is a balance to our legal system. Creditors have rights, and believe me, they don’t hesitate to stand up. Consumers have rights as well – but all too often they are unaware of those rights, lied to, taken advantage of, or are shamed by creditors into feeling that they are at the mercy of the creditor and have no rights. The laws are there to ensure balance and fair practice on both sides. I am here to represent the consumer to the fullest extent possible under the law.