EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is part of a series that is sponsored by WebRecon. WebRecon identifies serial plaintiffs lurking in your database BEFORE you contact them and expose yourself to a likely lawsuit. Protect your company from as many as one in three new consumer lawsuits by scrubbing your consumers through WebRecon first. Want to learn more? Call (855) WEB-RECON or email admin@webrecon.net today! Thanks to WebRecon for sponsoring this series.
DISCLAIMER: This article is based on a complaint. The defendant has not responded to the complaint to present its side of the case. The claims mentioned are accusations and should be considered as such until and unless proven otherwise.
One of the great things about emails is that they sit there in your inbox until you are ready to look at them. Sometimes, it’s right away, and other times, it’s when you have a minute to check and see if there is anything important in your inbox. The beauty is that you get to decide when and where your email gets checked. Maybe you can see where this is going, but in case my attempt at satire fell short of its intended target, a collector is facing a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuit because it sent two emails to the plaintiff inside of a window the plaintiff had informed the defendant was inconvenient to be contacted.
A copy of the complaint, filed in the District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, can be accessed using case number 23-cv-01202 or by clicking here.
The complaint skips the part of how the plaintiff knew to contact the defendant about which times would be convenient to communicate — it doesn’t say if the plaintiff received a letter or phone call or email. Nonetheless, on June 1 and June 6 of this year, the plaintiff sent a letter to the defendant that said:
“I realize that you are attempting to get in touch with me. Please keep in mind that it is inconvenient for you to contact me in any way whatsoever (this includes emails and phone calls) from 8am to 6pm because of health issues I am currently dealing with. You may attempt to contact me regarding this delinquent account after this time.”
Then, on June 21 at 4:27pm and June 25 at 4:16pm the plaintiff received emails from the defendant, attempting to collect on the debt. Such actions by the plaintiff “alarmed, confused, and distressed” the plaintiff, according to the complaint.
