Angry at bill collector who harrassed my wife - what can I do?

My 8.5 months-pregnant wife received a call today from a debt collector from CitiFinancial. He, without saying so many words, informed her that her mother-in-law (my mom) had a debt. He then asked for the #. My wife offered the address, and also said she would pass on a message, but refused to give out the phone # - and honestly replied that she did not even know her mother-in-law's # (it's in my cell - I doubt we have it written anywhere). He became a little harassing.

She requested to be taken off the list, and informed him of two statutory provisions he was violating. You see, I'm an attorney - and my wife is in her 3rd year of law school - and is ironically taking a consumer rights class right now - so she could even cite the provisions he was violating.

He called her stupid and told her she didn't know what she was talking about. He kept on pestering her, and became very aggressive, essentially making up laws. He refused to give an address or a last name, but only an accounts-receivable address.

I'm very angry. I'm a baby lawyer (first year out of law school). I'm also a federal law clerk, so I have plenty of time to make CitiFinancial miserable, if it would actually result in anything.

To be honest, I'd really like this guy to be fired. My wife called me crying and upset. He didn't know she was 8.5 months pregnant - but that still makes me even angrier.

We're already going to report them to the appropriate federal commission. If I start a letter writing campaign, is there any chance I could see some tangible results in terms of discipline and getting these guys to leave my wife alone/

Incidentally, I have no idea if the debt is valid. My mother denies it, and she's generally fiscally responsible - but she recentlyl moved, and for all I know there's some random collection account that she's in denial about.

 

Eh? He called my wife stupid, when she was (correctly) pointing out that he violated the law? You don't find that coercive, illegal, and abusive?

 

Eh, we're not talking about 30 hours of work. I write a nasty letter during my lunch hour, point out certain statutory provisions, note that I work for myself for free, and sign it "esquire." Maybe I call a good friend of mine at an elite law firm and get him to write a letter, too.

If you have any experience with this, do you think some flashy letterhead and the thread of a furious lawyer with time on his hand with a potentially troubling law suit could at least frighten them a little?

I'm not angry about anything related to my mother. Either there's a misunderstanding, which she needs to correct, or there's a debt. I'm angry that these people tried to pull a fast one over someone - and when it turned out she was educated on the issue - they turned abusive.

If I can spend an hour or two of my time and get the guy canned and maybe make a couple of his coworkers think before speaking next time - it's a good deal for me.

 

Just not in her character. My wife sort of treats life like a game of chess. She wants to win, but she likes playing by the rules. Also, if my mother really did owe a debt, my wife is the type that would be completely on the debt collector's side. Because of that, she really didn't mind at first.

The second the debt collector violated the law, my wife's chess-player/soon-to-be-lawyer instincts went off. She became very angry, very confident, and quite determined to inform this law-violating debt-colector of the error of his ways.

Normally, I think that she would have been angry rather than upset. Pregnancy, however, has been playing havoc with her hormones. Unfortunately, my job has forced me to be about 240 miles away - so I wasn't there to take care of it.

DaDakota: I respect your opinions generally - is there anything I can do with a casual letter or two to effect any changes?

 

Well, we've got (a) the first name, (b) the #, (c) the precise time he called, (d) the account #.

I figure they could probably determine the identity of the caller, if they so chose. I expect, however, that they'll choose to play ignorant.

I think that what they really want is for us to pay the bill. My wife's a teacher, and her only real asset is her house. We've got excellent credit and some disposable income; one thing I'm afraid of is that they're going to hope that by harassing us, eventually we'll just pay up.