abused by debt collecting attorneys

What is the name of your state? tn i apologize for the lengthyness, but felt should include details.
in 97' my then boyfriends father died of cancer, he (my boyfriend) was 19, thinking he was doing the adult thing he signed the funeral bill for roughly $8,000 along with his grandmother, and 3 aunts, who all promised he would never here of it and it would be paid. since then we have moved quite a bit, and never was notified that the bill hadn't had one cent paid on it until July of 2001 when one of the aunts, whom we also had heard nothing of since then, brought us a summons to court that was mailed to his grandmother's address who had died a few years earlier, from the attorneys of the funeral home. i freaked out, we offered to pay our quarter of the bill since 4 debtors remained, was told the indvidualy and severally clause was in this funeral contract, so we opted to pay upfront $1000 for good measure, and to make monthly payments, hoping not to have to miss work for a hearing. after the hearing realized the only other payments required was from 1 of the aunts and it was $20 a month. We were told that $50 a month was the minimum, this is the monthly payment they suggested, failing to inform us that it was accruing 10% interest annually . we paid until January of 2002, when requested to start paying $25 a month which was accepted. in March of same year we started having finanacial difficulties and knew we would need central heat and air work soon, not to mention trying to get married in October and pay for everything ourself and still include our son on our honeymoon, so i requested to stop payments until January of 2003, just to be told that we were the only ones making payments so we could not stop, very immaturely on my part, i stopped sending the payment in March. well, in November they levied our checking and savings account, taking over $700 from checking (which was returned through motion to quash) and over $1600 from savings (did not iclude in motion to quash, felt it would look better to let them keep it since i was ready to fight now). i sent a written request to the lawyers stating why i felt we should be relinquished of this debt (have paid over 1/4 of the debt, 2 aunts have paid nothing) and pointing out all the little here's and there's that they did wrong, i even pointed that to the best of my knowledge, they should be licensed as debt collectors and they are not, the only response was that if I felt we should be reimbursed by the other debtors we should take actions against them. my husband is not the revenge kind, he'd rather let it go than take a family member to court. i then exhaulsted all the complaint systems in TN, researched collection laws galore, none of the 3 complaints i filed were done anything about, just a note, the funeral home is Phillips Robinson and is owned by some local judges and their family. this pretty much went as i assumed it would, so now round 2 is going to be focused on the fact that these lawyers took his grandmother to court and had a judgement, which thay claim to be where the interest originates, against her for this debt without ever allowing or notifying my husband of his right to be at those hearings, i read somewhere that you cannot enter a judgement against one debtor if there are more than one listed on that debt, is this true? should my husband have been summoned to those hearings, and doesn't a summons have to be hand delivered? there was never a request or place to put his address on the funeral bill, so how did they expect to get notice to him. can this judgement against his grandmother hold ground against him if his name is not on it? Thank You.

[bigun]

Here's the Tn. law on collection agencies. Notice, lawyers are exempt from the requirements.


Collection Agency Licensing Requirements:

The Tennessee Collection Service Act prescribes the licensing requirements for the operation of a collection agency in the State of Tennessee. (62-20-101, et seq.).

Any person who, directly or indirectly, for a fee, commission, or other compensation, offers to a client or prospective client the service of collecting, or purchasing for collection, accounts, bills, notes or other indebtedness due such client for various debtors are subject to the licensing requirements under the Act. (62-20-102(3).) However, collection personnel of any court, attorneys at law, or any employees of a creditor are exempt from the licensing requirements. (62-20-103(a).) Any person who wishes to conduct collection services must submit an application for a license to the Tennessee Collection Service Board for approval and post a bond in an amount between $15,000 and $25,000 depending on the number of employees. (62-20-106.) Each location of the collection business must be registered and operated by a location manager. (62-20-105, 62-20-108.) A collection service must also keep and retain for a period of 3 years accurate individual records of collection, issue collection receipts upon request, maintain a separate fiduciary or trust bank account and maintain records and books reflecting the true condition of bank accounts at the end of each calendar month. (62-20-114.)

The Rules of The Tennessee Collection Service Board (Chapters 0320-1 to 0320-4) set forth the qualifications, examinations, and fees requirements. Detailed information on licensing requirements may be obtained from: State of Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance Collection Service Board 500 James Robertson Parkway Nashville, Tennessee 37243 Tel: 615-741-1741



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