The Texas Debt Collection Act requires certain types of debt collectors to secure and file with the Texas Secretary of State a judgment bond.  The bond must be in favor of a person damaged by a violation of the Texas Debt Collection Act and in favor of the State of Texas.  The bond amount is $10,000.00.  Only third-party debt collectors (as defined by the Act) and credit bureaus must obtain such a bond.  If a collection agency does not obtain and file an appropriate bond, it is in violation of the Act.  Here is a link to a site at which you can search for a particular collection agency to determine whether it has filed a bond -

 http://direct.sos.state.tx.us/debtcollectors/DCSearch.asp

We have seen a number of cases over the years in which a consumer is harassed by a debt collector that will not identify itself.  Some debt collectors pretend to be government officials.  Other debt collectors will identify the company name but will refuse to provide an address and/or or telephone number.  If you want to dispute or obtain information about a debt in writing and/or send a written request to cease and desist collection efforts, you obviously cannot do so without contact information for the collection agency.  There are a few ways to obtain it.

The most obvious way to obtain the information is to Google the name of the collection agency and/or the telephone number (if available).  There are a number of websites devoted to debt issues and/or telephone numbers from which harassing calls are made.  Many websites do not appear to provide completely reliable information.  Therefore, you should attempt to verify information obtained at suspect websites with information obtained elsewhere.

You can also go the website of the ACA – the American Association of Credit and Collection Professionals.  Many collection agencies are members of the organization.  The membership directory is here -

http://www.acainternational.org/memberdirectory.aspx

If the collection agency collects debts in Texas, it is usually required by the Texas Debt Collection Act (Chapter 392 of the Texas Finance Code) to obtain and have on file with the Texas Secretary of State an appropriate bond.  The Secretary of State maintains a list of all collection agencies, creditors, debt buyers, and collection attorneys who have filed such a bond.  The search page is here -

https://direct.sos.state.tx.us/debtcollectors/DCSearch.asp 

Finally, you can search the collection agency’s name or phone number at the Better Business Bureau’s website.  The search page is here -

http://www.bbb.org/us/Find-Business-Reviews/

A summary judgment is a judgment granted by a court on all or part of a case without the need to go to trial.  A court will grant a summary judgment regarding an issue in a case if two things are true.

First, there must be no genuine issue as to any fact which is necessary to prove the issue.  In other words, there is no genuine dispute, as shown by appropriate evidence, that whatever someone alleged happened actually happened.

Second, the person asking the court for the summary judgment needs to show that he or she is entitled to the summary judgment as a matter of law.  The law must be such that the court, when applying the law to the facts, clearly shows that the court should grant the summary judgment.

It is rare for any person involved in a lawsuit to agree to have a summary judgment granted against him or her.  However, here is a copy of a summary judgment secured by our firm against Apex Financial Management, LLC, and which Apex agreed to have signed against it:

Most of the time, when a collection agency has had a summary judgment motion filed against it, it will file a response to the motion and fight the request for a summary judgment.  Here is a conformed copy of a summary judgment we obtained against First Shore Credit Corporation:

First Shore did not agree to having the summary judgment granted against it, and in fact filed a response to the motion arguing that the court should not grant the motion.  Both above-referenced cases are still pending as of today, and there are other unresolved issues in both cases.  The summary judgments are also interlocutory, or temporary, because they do not dispose of all issues in the cases.