A bankruptcy judge in Florida recently sent a message to big banks: When your debtors go into bankruptcy, quit trying to get money out of them or you'll be the one who ends up paying.
The case concerns a debtor who went into bankruptcy, then filed what's known as a debtor's discharge. That's a legal injunction meant to protect a debtor from collection actions, such as letters and phone calls demanding payment, on the part of the creditor. The point of a debtor's discharge is to offer a grace period while the debtor gets their finances in order.
Sometimes, though, banks ignore the discharge. That's what Bank of America did in the recent Florida case. After the debtor filed for bankruptcy protection, BofA proceeded to call the debtor an additional 38 times to ask about the outstanding payments, according to the Bankruptcy Law Network.
In the end, though, it was BofA that had to shell out. The judge -- Arthur Briskman of the Middle District of Florida Bankruptcy Court for Fort Myers Division, according to the Florida Bankruptcy Lawyer Blog -- ordered BofA to pay $12,500 in attorney's fees and damages for emotional distress, BLN reports.
Read the rest of the article at The Huffington Post
No comments:
Post a Comment