Federal bankruptcy law prohibits creditors from contacting you about debts that are included in your bankruptcy.

One of the benefits of filing for bankruptcy is the peaceful feeling of knowing you have freed yourself from your debt. This means that the irritating continuous creditor calls should cease at last. The fear of answering your phone when it rings will finally begin to subside.

Once bankruptcy has been filed by your Bankruptcy Attorney, creditors generally have to stop attempting the collection of your debt during your bankruptcy case. This means that your creditors should not have the ability to foreclose or repossess your property and they cannot call you or write to demand payment. If any of your creditors do not obey these bankruptcy laws, and they attempt to contact you once you have filed for bankruptcy, they violate the automatic stay which takes effect with filing of the bankruptcy case.

Even once your bankruptcy case has been closed, your creditors are not permitted to contact you about any of the debts that were discharged in your case. Contacting you about these debts would violate your discharge order. If this order is disregarded by the creditor, you may be able to take action against that company.

It is mandatory for creditors to follow the regulations set forth by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. However, it is not abnormal for them to break these rules. Some of the more common tactics utilized by bill collectors include contacting you at work, adding unauthorized charges to your account, harassment of your family members including the use of abusive language.

Remember that creditors who were not part of your bankruptcy still have the right to contact you concerning your debt. When a creditor is part of your bankruptcy is not as easy to answer. The fact that a creditor was not listed on the bankruptcy petition and did not receive notice of your bankruptcy might not result in the conclusion that this creditor was not part of the bankruptcy filing. To say this very clear, even when a creditor is not listed on your bankruptcy petition, the debt might be still discharged and wiped out. Your discharge order will protect you concerning the debt you had when you filed, but any additional debt that you did not include in your bankruptcy, reaffirmed, or incurred after you filed is still collectible.

If you have questions about bankruptcy and live in the St. Louis Metropolitan area, please do not hesitate to contact us.