A search for a consumer protection attorney near me usually concerns federal laws that limit what companies may do to you. These laws cover a debt collector's calls and letters, errors on a credit or background report, robocalls and texts you never agreed to, and accounts opened by an identity thief. A state may add its own protections.
Perhaps a collector has called your sister about a bill you have never seen. Perhaps a credit report lists an account that is not yours, or a background check cost you a job offer, or your phone keeps ringing with a recorded voice after you asked it to stop. The first question is whether the law says anything about what a company did. Many people feel embarrassed, especially when a debt is involved, and are not sure they have standing to complain at all.
This page explains the federal rules that answer that question. It covers what each law requires of the company involved, how to recognize conduct the law addresses, and which official complaint processes exist.
What Consumer Protection Law Covers
Consumer protection law, as this site covers it, turns on four kinds of problems. Each one is tied to specific federal law and a specific type of company.
Debt collection. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), 15 U.S.C. § 1692 et seq., governs debt collectors. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692a(6), a debt collector is any person who uses any instrumentality of interstate commerce or the mails "in any business the principal purpose of which is the collection of any debts, or who regularly collects or attempts to collect, directly or indirectly, debts owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another." The statute lists exclusions. One is a creditor's own employee collecting in the creditor's name. Whether a particular company fits the definition depends on its facts.
Credit reports and background checks. The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq., governs three groups:
- A consumer reporting agency, the company that assembles and sells reports about people. Credit bureaus and background-screening companies are examples.
- A furnisher, the business that supplies information about you to that agency, such as a lender or a collector.
- The users of those reports, such as employers and landlords.
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681(b), the law's stated purpose is to require consumer reporting agencies to adopt reasonable procedures for meeting the needs of commerce for consumer credit, personnel, insurance, and other information in a manner which is fair and equitable to the consumer. A tenant screening report can be a consumer report. This site's page on tenant screening report errors treats it separately.
Calls and texts. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), 47 U.S.C. § 227, restricts automated calls and prerecorded messages. Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(a)(1), an automatic telephone dialing system is equipment that has the capacity "to store or produce telephone numbers to be called, using a random or sequential number generator; and to dial such numbers."
Identity theft and exposed information. Federal law gives identity theft victims rights, and state law may add protections. When fraud surfaces as an account on a credit report or a collector's demand, the FCRA and FDCPA rules described below can apply. The identity theft attorney page explains this in more detail.
Conduct described on this page may violate these statutes only under the conditions the statute attaches. Whether a particular situation violates the law always depends on its facts.
Federal Laws That Give Consumers Rights
Each statute protects you only against the company it governs. Keeping the three laws in their own lanes is the first step in understanding any consumer problem.
The FDCPA: when and how a collector may contact you. Without your prior consent or a court's permission, a debt collector generally may not communicate with you:
- at an unusual or inconvenient time or place. Absent knowledge to the contrary, the convenient time is after 8 a.m. and before 9 p.m. in your local time zone, under 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(a)(1);
- once it knows you are represented by an attorney for the debt and can readily find the attorney's name and address, unless that attorney fails to respond within a reasonable time or consents to direct contact; or
- at work, if it knows or has reason to know your employer prohibits such contact.
Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(c), if you notify a collector in writing that you refuse to pay or want communication to stop, it generally may not communicate further about that debt. Three exceptions apply. It may still tell you its efforts are ending, that it or the creditor may invoke remedies it ordinarily invokes, or that it intends to invoke a specified remedy. The debt collector keeps calling page covers call frequency.
The FDCPA: harassment and false statements. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692d, a collector may not engage in conduct whose natural consequence is to harass, oppress or abuse any person. The listed examples include threats of violence, obscene language, and calling repeatedly with intent to annoy. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692e, a collector may not use false, deceptive or misleading representations. The listed examples include misstating the amount or legal status of a debt, falsely implying it is an attorney, and threatening action that cannot legally be taken or is not intended.
The FDCPA: debt validation. Debt validation is the information a collector must provide so you can tell what is being collected. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(a), within five days after its first communication, a collector generally must send a written notice. The notice must state the amount of the debt, the creditor's name, and your rights to dispute and to request the original creditor's name. A consumer may dispute the debt, or request the original creditor's name and address, in writing within thirty days after receiving the notice. If the consumer does, the collector must stop collecting the disputed amount until it mails verification or the requested information. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1692g(c), not disputing a debt cannot be treated by a court as an admission that you owe it.
The FCRA: reinvestigation. A reinvestigation is the agency's re-check of information you dispute. Under 15 U.S.C. § 1681i(a), when a consumer disputes an item, the agency must reinvestigate free of charge within 30 days of receiving the dispute. It must then record the item's current status or delete it. The period may extend by up to 15 days if the consumer sends relevant information during the 30 days. That extension does not apply if the item is found inaccurate or cannot be verified. Within 5 business days of receiving the dispute, the agency must notify the furnisher. The agency may end a reinvestigation it reasonably finds frivolous or irrelevant. If it does, it must tell the consumer why within 5 business days.
The TCPA: automated calls and private actions. Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A), it is unlawful to make a call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice to the numbers the paragraph lists, which include any telephone number assigned to a cellular telephone service. The statute provides two separate private actions:
- Automated and prerecorded calls. Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3), a person or entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or rules of court of a State, bring in an appropriate court of that State an action to recover actual monetary loss from a violation, or to receive $500 in damages for each violation, whichever is greater.
- Do-not-call rules. Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(c)(5), a person who has received more than one telephone call within any 12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation of the regulations prescribed under that subsection may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or rules of court of a State, bring in an appropriate court of that State an action to recover actual monetary loss from such a violation, or to receive up to $500 in damages for each violation, whichever is greater. The caller has an affirmative defense if it established and implemented, with due care, reasonable practices and procedures.
Under each action, a court may, in its discretion, increase the award to not more than three times that amount if it finds the violation willful or knowing. These are amounts the statute allows a court to award, not amounts anyone is owed. The consumer rights remedies page compares remedies across the statutes.
State law. California and other states may add their own consumer protection rules. These rules differ from state to state.