Need Help With Debt Harassment

[Treid84]

Pennsylvania
I was being harassed by a debt collector, looking for someone who wasn't me. I ask them to stop calling me, but they kept calling. I got in contact with a lawyer and under the "Fair Credit Act" I was able to sue them. The lawyer who accepted my case advised the collector to settle with me and they did for $3750. He's only offering me $750 (20%) of the full settlement. Is that illegal or can I ask for more of the settlement. Or can I let him go and sue the company myself under the "Fair Credit Act"?

 

[adjusterjack]

Pennsylvania
I was being harassed by a debt collector, looking for someone who wasn't me. I ask them to stop calling me, but they kept calling. I got in contact with a lawyer and under the "Fair Credit Act" I was able to sue them. The lawyer who accepted my case advised the collector to settle with me and they did for $3750. He's only offering me $750 (20%) of the full settlement. Is that illegal or can I ask for more of the settlement. Or can I let him go and sue the company myself under the "Fair Credit Act"?

How much you get out of the settlement depends entirely on your fee agreement with the lawyer. If you agreed to pay him by the hour and he charges, say, $300 per hour his bill could easily run to $3000 for 10 hours of work on a lawsuit.

If you fire him he'll just bill you for the work he's performed and sue you for it if you don't pay.

I suggest you sit down with him and talk this out. Find out where those charges are coming from. If you don't like the answers you can file a fee dispute with your county's Bar Association.

 

[latigo]

Pennsylvania
I was being harassed by a debt collector, looking for someone who wasn't me. I ask them to stop calling me, but they kept calling. I got in contact with a lawyer and under the "Fair Credit Act" (?) I was able to sue them. The lawyer who accepted my case advised the collector to settle with me and they did for $3750. He's only offering me $750 (20%) of the full settlement. Is that illegal or can I ask for more of the settlement. Or can I let him go and sue the company myself under the "Fair Credit Act"?

I think you mean the "Fair Debt Collection Practices Act", either the federal enactment or Pennsylvania's.

Anyway, if are you saying that your attorney is telling you that he intends to keep 80% of an agreed settlement figure in payment for his legal services in securing that settlement, THEN you don't "let him go"- you don't "sue the collector yourself" for a claim that has been fully resolved!

What you do is to be in communication with the Pennsylvania Bar Association.