West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Statute

Chapter 47. Regulation of Trade.

ARTICLE 16. Collection Agencies.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 47-16-1. Citation of article.

This article may be cited as the “Collection Agency Act of 1973.”

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 47-16-2. Definitions.

The following words and terms as used in this article shall be construed as follows:

(a) “Claim” means any obligation for the payment of money due or asserted to be due to another person, firm, corporation or association.

(b) “Collection agency” means and includes all persons, firms, corporations and associations: (1) Directly or indirectly engaged in the business of soliciting from or collecting for others any account, bill or indebtedness originally due or asserted to be owed or due another and all persons, firms, corporations and associations directly or indirectly engaged in asserting, enforcing or prosecuting those claims; (2) which, in attempting to collect or in collecting his or her or its own accounts or claims uses a fictitious name or names other than his or her or its own name; (3) which attempts to or does give away or sell to others any system or series of letters or forms for use in the collection of accounts or claims which assert or indicate directly or indirectly that the claims or accounts are being asserted or collected by any person, firm, corporation or association other than the creditor or owner of the claim or account; or (4) directly or indirectly engaged in the business of soliciting, or who holds himself or herself out as engaged in the business of soliciting, debts of any kind owed or due, or asserted to be owed or due, to any solicited person, firm, corporation or association for fee, commission or other compensation.

The term “collection agency” shall not mean or include: (1) Regular employees of a single creditor or of a collection agency licensed hereunder; (2) banks; (3) trust companies; (4) savings and loan associations; (5) building and loan associations; (6) industrial loan companies; (7) small loan companies; (8) abstract companies doing an escrow business; (9) duly licensed real estate brokers or agents when the claims or accounts being handled by such broker or agent are related to or in connection with such brokers’ or agents’ regular real estate business; (10) express and telegraph companies subject to public regulation and supervision; (11) attorneys-at-law handling claims and collections in their own names and not operating a collection agency under the management of a layman; (12) any person, firm, corporation or association acting under the order of any court of competent jurisdiction; or (13) any person collecting a debt owed to another person only where: (A) Both persons are related by wholly-owned, common ownership or affiliated by wholly-owned corporate control; (B) the person collecting the debt acts only on behalf of persons related as described in paragraph (A) of this subdivision; and (C) debt collection is not the principal business of the person collecting the debt.

(c) “Commissioner” means the state tax commissioner or his or her agent.

(d) “Customer” means any person, firm, corporation or association who has filed, assigned or sold any claim or chose in action with or to a collection agency for collection.

(e) “Licensee” means any person holding a business franchise registration certificate under section two, article twelve, chapter eleven of this code and under the provisions of this article.

(f) “Trust account” means a special account established by a collection agency with a banking institution in this state, wherein funds collected on behalf of a customer shall be deposited.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 47-16-3. Scope.

No person, firm, corporation or association shall establish or conduct within this state a collection agency except as authorized by this article.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 47-16-4. Requirements for conduct of agency.

(a) License — No person, firm, corporation or association shall conduct within this state a collection agency without having first applied for and obtained a business franchise registration certificate pursuant to section two, article twelve, chapter eleven of this code, nor shall any person, firm, corporation or association establish or operate a collection agency or the business of a collection agency, unless such person, firm, corporation or association maintains an office within the state of West Virginia. The business franchise registration certificate shall be deemed the collection agency’s license. A license is required for each collection agency, including each principal office and all branch offices thereof.

(b) Bond — Each applicant shall file with the commissioner a continuing surety bond executed by a corporation which is licensed to transact the business of fidelity and surety insurance in the state of West Virginia to run concurrently with the registration tax period, which bond must be filed with, and approved by, said commissioner before the license herein provided may be issued. A separate bond shall be filed for each collection agency including each principal office and all branch offices thereof. Each bond shall be in the amount of five thousand dollars payable to the state of West Virginia, and conditioned that any such person will pay all damages to the state or a private person resulting from any unlawful act or action by such person or his or its agent in connection with the conduct of the business of the collection agency. This continuing bond shall be filed with the tax commissioner.

An action may be brought in any court of competent jurisdiction upon the bond by any person to whom the licensee fails to account and pay as set forth in such bond. The aggregate liability of the surety for all breaches of the condition of the bond shall not exceed the sum of such bond.

Upon entering judgment for the prevailing party in any action on the bond required by this article, the court shall include in the judgment, reasonable compensation for the services of such party’s attorney in the action.

The license of any licensee shall be void upon termination of the bond of the surety company, unless, prior to such termination, a new bond has been filed with the commissioner.

Should the license of any surety company to transact business in this state be terminated, all bonds given pursuant to this article upon which such company is surety shall thereupon be suspended, and the commissioner shall immediately notify each affected licensee of such suspension and require that a new bond be filed. This notice shall be by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, and shall be addressed to the licensee at his or its principal place of business as shown by the commissioner’s records. The failure of any licensee to file a bond with new or additional surety within thirty days after being advised in writing by the commissioner of the necessity to do so shall be cause for the commissioner to revoke the license.

(c) Record Keeping — Each collection agency licensed to operate in this state shall keep a record of all sums collected by such agency and of all disbursements made by such agency, and shall maintain or make available all such records and all records as to customers’ funds at such agency’s principal place of business within this state. Each collection agency shall maintain records of collections for and payments to customers for a period of six years from the date of last entry therein.

No collection agency, nor any employee thereof, shall intentionally make a false entry in any such collection agency record nor intentionally mutilate, destroy or otherwise dispose of any such record within the time limits provided in this section. Such records shall at all times be open for inspection by the commissioner, or his duly appointed representative.

No licensee shall commingle the money of collection agency customers with other moneys, but shall maintain a separate trust account in a bank for customers’ funds.

Each collection agency shall, within a period of thirty days after the close of each and every calendar month, pay to such agency’s customers the net proceeds due on all collections made during the preceding calendar month. When the net proceeds due the customer are less than five dollars at the end of any calendar month, the collection agency may defer for a period not to exceed ninety days the payment of said proceeds, if monthly statements are mailed or delivered to the customer.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 47-16-5. Penalty; civil liability.

(a) Any person, firm, corporation or association violating any of the provisions of this article shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than one thousand dollars.

(b) Any person, firm, corporation or association violating any of the provisions of this article shall, in addition to any civil liability arising by virtue of such violation, also be civilly liable as otherwise provided by law.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 46A-2-122. Definitions.

For the purposes of this section and sections one hundred twenty-three, one hundred twenty-four, one hundred twenty-five, one hundred twenty-six, one hundred twenty-seven, one hundred twenty-eight, one hundred twenty-nine, and one hundred twenty-nine-a of this article, the following terms shall have the following meanings:

(a) “Consumer” means any natural person obligated or allegedly obligated to pay any debt.

(b) “Claim” means any obligation or alleged obligation of a consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the money, property, insurance or service which is the subject of the transaction is primarily for personal, family or household purposes, whether or not such obligation has been reduced to judgment.

(c) “Debt collection” means any action, conduct or practice of soliciting claims for collection or in the collection of claims owed or due or alleged to be owed or due by a consumer.

(d) “Debt collector” means any person or organization engaging directly or indirectly in debt collection. The term includes any person or organization who sells or offers to sell forms which are, or are represented to be, a collection system, device or scheme, and are intended or calculated to be used to collect claims.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 46A-2-123. Practice of law by debt collectors.

Unless a licensed attorney in this state, no debt collector shall engage in conduct deemed the practice of law. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is deemed the practice of law:

(a) The performance of legal services, furnishing of legal advice or false representation, direct or by implication, that any person is an attorney;

(b) Any communication with consumers in the name of an attorney or upon stationery or other written matter bearing an attorney’s name; and

(c) Any demand for or payment of money constituting a share of compensation for services performed or to be performed by an attorney in collecting a claim.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 46A-2-124. Threats or coercion.

No debt collector shall collect or attempt to collect any money alleged to be due and owing by means of any threat, coercion or attempt to coerce. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is deemed to violate this section:

(a) The use, or express or implicit threat of use, of violence or other criminal means, to cause harm to the person, reputation or property of any person;

(b) The accusation or threat to accuse any person of fraud, any crime, or any conduct which, if true, would tend to disgrace such other person or in any way subject him to ridicule, or any conduct which, if true, would tend to disgrace such other person or in any way subject him to ridicule or contempt of society;

(c) False accusations made to another person, including any credit reporting agency, that a consumer is willfully refusing to pay a just debt, or the threat to so make false accusations;

(d) The threat to sell or assign to another the obligation of the consumer with an attending representation or implication that the result of such sale or assignment would be that the consumer would lose any defense to the claim or would be subjected to harsh, vindictive or abusive collection attempts;

(e) The threat that nonpayment of an alleged claim will result in the:

(1) Arrest of any person; or

(2) Garnishment of any wages of any person or the taking of other action requiring judicial sanction, without informing the consumer that there must be in effect a judicial order permitting such garnishment or such other action before it can be taken; and

(f) The threat to take any action prohibited by this chapter or other law regulating the debt collector’s conduct.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 46A-2-125. Oppression and abuse.

No debt collector shall unreasonably oppress or abuse any person in connection with the collection of or attempt to collect any claim alleged to be due and owing by that person or another. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is deemed to violate this section:

(a) The use of profane or obscene language or language that is intended to unreasonably abuse the hearer or reader;

(b) The placement of telephone calls without disclosure of the caller’s identity and with the intent to annoy, harass or threaten any person at the called number;

(c) Causing expense to any person in the form of long distance telephone tolls, telegram fees or other charges incurred by a medium of communication, by concealment of the true purpose of the communication; and

(d) Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously, or at unusual times or at times known to be inconvenient, with intent to annoy, abuse, oppress or threaten any person at the called number.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 46A-2-126. Unreasonable publication.

No debt collector shall unreasonably publicize information relating to any alleged indebtedness or consumer. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is deemed to violate this section:

(a) The communication to any employer or his agent before judgment has been rendered of any information relating to an employee’s indebtedness other than through proper legal action, process or proceeding;

(b) The disclosure, publication, or communication of information relating to a consumer’s indebtedness to any relative or family member of the consumer if such person is not residing with the consumer, except through proper legal action or process or at the express and unsolicited request of the relative or family member;

(c) The disclosure, publication or communication of any information relating to a consumer’s indebtedness to any other person other than a credit reporting agency, by publishing or posting any list of consumers, commonly known as “deadbeat lists,” except lists to prevent the fraudulent use of credit accounts or credit cards, by advertising for sale any claim to enforce payment thereof, or in any manner other than through proper legal action, process or proceeding; and

(d) The use of any form of communication to the consumer, which ordinarily may be seen by any other persons, that displays or conveys any information about the alleged claim other than the name, address and phone number of the debt collector.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 46A-2-127. Fraudulent, deceptive or misleading representations.

No debt collector shall use any fraudulent, deceptive or misleading representation or means to collect or attempt to collect claims or to obtain information concerning consumers. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is deemed to violate this section:

(a) The use of any business, company or organization name while engaged in the collection of claims, other than the true name of the debt collector’s business, company or organization;

(b) Any false representation that the debt collector has in his possession information or something of value for the consumer that is made to solicit or discover information about the consumer;

(c) The failure to clearly disclose the name and full business address of the person to whom the claim has been assigned for collection, or to whom the claim is owed, at the time of making any demand for money;

(d) Any false representation or implication of the character, extent or amount of a claim against a consumer, or of its status in any legal proceeding;

(e) Any false representation or false implication that any debt collector is vouched for, bonded by, affiliated with or an instrumentality, agent or official of this state or any agency of the federal, state or local government;

(f) The use or distribution or sale of any written communication which simulates or is falsely represented to be adocument authorized, issued or approved by a court, an official or any other legally constituted or authorized authority, or which creates a false impression about its source, authorization or approval;

(g) Any representation that an existing obligation of the consumer may be increased by the addition of attorney’s fees, investigation fees, service fees or any other fees or charges when in fact such fees or charges may not legally be added to the existing obligation; and

(h) Any false representation or false impression about the status or true nature of or the services rendered by the debt collector or his business.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 46A-2-128. Unfair or unconscionable means.

No debt collector shall use unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any claim. Without limiting the general application of the foregoing, the following conduct is deemed to violate this section:

(a) The seeking or obtaining of any written statement or acknowledgment in any form that specifies that a consumer’s obligation is one incurred for necessaries of life where the original obligation was not in fact incurred for such necessaries;

(b) The seeking or obtaining of any written statement or acknowledgment in any form containing an affirmation of any obligation by a consumer who has been declared bankrupt, without clearly disclosing the nature and consequences of such affirmation and the fact that the consumer is not legally obligated to make such affirmation;

(c) The collection or the attempt to collect from the consumer all or any part of the debt collector’s fee or charge for services rendered: Provided, That attorney’s fees, court costs and other reasonable collection costs and charges necessary for the collection of any amount due upon delinquent educational loans made by any institution of higher education within this state may be recovered when the terms of the obligation so provide. Recovery of attorney’s fees and collection costs may not exceed thirty-three and one-third percent of the amount due and owing to any such institution: Provided, however, That nothing contained in this subsection shall be construed to limit or prohibit any institution of higher education from paying additional attorney fees and collection costs as long as such additional attorney fees and collection costs do not exceed an amount equal to five percent of the amount of the debt actually recovered and such additional attorney fees and collection costs are deducted or paid from the amount of the debt recovered for the institution or paid from other funds available to the institution;

(d) The collection of or the attempt to collect any interest or other charge, fee or expense incidental to the principal obligation unless such interest or incidental fee, charge or expense is expressly authorized by the agreement creating the obligation and by statute; and

(e) Any communication with a consumer whenever it appears that the consumer is represented by an attorney and the attorney’s name and address are known, or could be easily ascertained, unless the attorney fails to answer correspondence, return phone calls or discuss the obligation in question or unless the attorney consents to direct communication.

(1) For the purposes of the provisions in this chapter relating to garnishment:

(a) “Disposable earnings” means that part of the earnings of an individual remaining after the deduction from those earnings of amounts required by law to be withheld; and

(b) “Garnishment” means any legal or equitable procedure through which the earnings of an individual are required to be withheld for payment of a debt.

(2) The maximum part of the aggregate disposable earnings of an individual for any workweek which is subjected to garnishment to enforce payment of a judgment arising from a consumer credit sale or consumer loan may not exceed the lesser of:

(a) Twenty percent of his disposable earnings for that week, or

(b) The amount by which his disposable earnings for that week exceed thirty times the federal minimum hourly wage prescribed by section 6(a)(1) of the “Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938,” U.S.C. Title 19, Sec. 206(a)(1), in effect at the time the earnings are payable.

(c) In the case of earnings for a pay period other than a week, the commissioner shall prescribe by rule a multiple of the federal minimum hourly wage equivalent in effect to that set forth in subdivision (b), subsection (2) of this sec-tion.

(3) No court may make, execute or enforce an order or process in violation of this section. Any time after a consumer’s earnings have been executed upon pursuant to article five-a or article five-b, chapter thirty-eight of this code by a creditor resulting from a consumer credit sale, consumer lease or consumer loan, such consumer may petition any court having jurisdiction of such matter or the circuit court of the county wherein he resides to reduce or temporarily or permanently remove such execution upon his earnings on the grounds that such execution causes or will cause undue hardship to him or his family. When such fact is proved to the satisfaction of such court, it may reduce or temporarily or permanently remove such execution.

(4) No garnishment governed by the provisions of this section will be given priority over a voluntary assignment of wages to fulfill a support obligation, a garnishment to collect arrearages in support payments, or a notice of with-holding from wages of amounts payable as support, notwithstanding the fact that the garnishment in question or the judgment upon which it is based may have preceded the support-related assignment, garnishment, or notice of withholding in point of time or filing.

West Virginia Fair Debt Collection Practices Act § 48-1-307. Collection of child or spousal support by collection agencies.

(a) Any person attempting to collect a child or spousal support obligation or arrearage on behalf of a resident or from a resident of this state is subject to the provisions of article sixteen, chapter forty-seven of this code and the provisions of this section and is otherwise subject to the jurisdiction of this state.

(b) The amount of delinquent child or spousal support or arrearage established by order of a court of competent jurisdiction in this state is not subject to waiver or compromise, either by agreement of the parties or by a collection agency acting on behalf of a party and may only be modified by an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.

(c) No child or spousal support or arrearage of child or spousal support collected by the state IV-D agency may be redirected to any collection agency.

(d) No collection agency attempting to collect a child or spousal support obligation or arrearage on behalf of a resident or from a resident of this state may include any funds collected by a IV-D agency in the amount from which their fee is determined or collected.

(e) No collection agency, other than an attorney licensed to practice law in this state, attempting to collect a child support or spousal support obligation or arrearage may engage in conduct which is considered the practice of law, including, but not limited to:

(1) The performance of legal services, the offering of legal advice or the making of a false representation, directly or by implication, that a person is an attorney;

(2) Any communication with persons in the name of an attorney or upon stationery or other written matter bearing an attorney’s name; and

(3) Any demand for or payment of money constituting a share of compensation for services performed or to be performed by an attorney in collecting a claim.

(f) No collection agency may collect or attempt to collect any money alleged to be due and owing by any threat, coercion or attempt to coerce, including, but not limited to:

(1) The use, or the express or implicit threat of use, of violence or other criminal means, to cause harm to the person, reputation or property of any person;

(2) The accusation or threat to accuse any person of fraud, of any crime, or of any conduct which, if true, would tend to disgrace the other person or in any way subject them to ridicule or contempt of society;

(3) False accusations made to another person, including any credit reporting agency, that a person is willfully refusing to pay a just claim, or the threat to make such false accusations;

(4) The threat that nonpayment of an alleged claim will result in the arrest of any person, or of the taking of any other action requiring judicial sanction, without informing the person that there must be in effect a court order permitting the action before it can be taken; and

(5) The threat to take any action prohibited by this section or other law regulating the conduct of a collection agency.

(g) No collection agency may unreasonably oppress or abuse any person in connection with the collection of or attempt to collect any child or spousal support obligation or arrearage, including, but not limited to:

(1) The use of profane or obscene language or language that is intended to unreasonably abuse the listener or reader;

(2) The placement of telephone calls without disclosure of the caller’s identity and with the intent to annoy, harass or threaten any person at the called number;

(3) Causing expense to any person in the form of long distance telephone tolls, telegram fees or other charges incurred by a medium of communication by concealment of the true purpose of the communication; and

(4) Causing a telephone to ring or engaging any person in telephone conversation repeatedly or continuously, or at unusual times or at times known to be inconvenient, with intent to annoy, abuse, oppress or threaten any person at the called number.

(h) No collection agency may unreasonably publicize information relating to any alleged child or spousal support obligation or arrearage, including, but not limited to:

(1) The communication to any employer or his or her agent of any information relating to an employee’s indebtedness other than through proper legal action, process or proceeding;

(2) The disclosure, publication or communication of information relating to a child or spousal support obligation or arrearage to any relative or family member of the obligor, except through proper legal action or process or at the express and unsolicited request of the obligor;

(3) The disclosure, publication or communication of any information relating to an obligor’s child or spousal support obligation or arrearage to any other person other than a credit reporting agency, by publishing or posting any list of persons, commonly known as “deadbeat lists”, or in any manner other than through proper legal action, process or proceeding; and

(4) The use of any form of communication to the obligor, which ordinarily may be seen by any other person, that displays or conveys any information about the alleged claim other than the name, address and telephone number of the collection agency.

(i) No collection agency may use any fraudulent, deceptive or misleading representation or means to collect or attempt to collect claims or to obtain information concerning support obligors, including, but not limited to:

(1) The use of any business, company or organization name while engaged in the collection of claims, other than the true name of the collection agency’s business, company or organization;

(2) Any false representation that the collection agency has in its possession information or something of value for the obligor with the underlying purpose of soliciting or discovering information about the person;

(3) The failure to clearly disclose the name of the person to whom the claim is owed, at the time of making any demand for money;

(4) Any false representation or implication of the character, extent or amount of a claim against an obligor or of the status of any legal proceeding;

(5) Any false representation or false implication that any collection agency is vouched for, bonded by, affiliated with an agency, instrumentality, agent or official of this state or of the federal or local government;

(6) The use, distribution or sale of any written communication which simulates or is falsely represented to be a document authorized, issued or approved by a court, an official or any other legally constituted or authorized authority, or which creates a false impression about its source, authorization or approval;

(7) Any representation that an existing obligation of the obligor may be increased by the addition of attorney’s fees, investigation fees, service fees or any other fees or charges when in fact the fees or charges may not legally be added to the existing obligation; and

(8) Any false representation or false impression about the status or true nature of the services rendered by the collection agency.

(j) No collection agency may use unfair or unconscionable means to collect or attempt to collect any claim, including, but not limited to:

(1) The collection of or the attempt to collect any interest in excess of that interest authorized by the provisions of this chapter, or other charge, fee or expense incidental to the principal obligation that exceeds ten percent of the principal amount from an obligor or obligee; and

(2) Any communication with an obligor whenever it appears the obligor is represented by an attorney and the attorney’s name and address are known, or could be easily ascertained, unless the attorney fails to answer correspondence, return telephone calls or discuss the obligation in question, or unless the attorney and the obligor consent to direct communication.

(k) No collection agency may use, distribute, sell or prepare for use any written communication which violates or fails to conform to United States postal laws and regulations.

(l) No collection agency may place a telephone call or otherwise communicate by telephone with an obligor at any place, including a place of employment, falsely stating that the call is “urgent” or an “emergency”.

(m) No collection agency may attempt to collect any portion of a fee from any money collected by any other entity or authority. The collection agency may only collect a fee from funds procured solely through its collection activities.

(n) A collection agency must provide the state IV-D agency with an accounting of any money collected and forwarded to the obligee as child support, spousal support or arrearages every sixty days until the collection agency ceases all collection activity.

(o) Any resident of this state who contracts for services with a collection agency to collect current or past-due child support or spousal support may, upon thirty days’ written notice, cancel the contract for collection. The notice must be mailed to the collection agency by first-class mail. All contracts signed by residents of this state must include written notification of this right of cancellation.

(p) Any person who violates the provisions of this section is subject to the penalties set forth in section 47-16-5 and section 11-12-9 of this code.

(q) Any person who violates the provisions of this section is liable to the injured party in a civil action. Additionally, any person who violates the provisions of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not less than one thousand dollars nor more than five thousand dollars for each separate incident.

(r) For any action filed pursuant to this section alleging illegal, fraudulent or unconscionable conduct or any prohibited debt collection practice, the court, in its discretion, may award all or a portion of the costs of litigation, including reasonable attorney fees, court costs and fees, to the injured party. Upon a finding by the court that an action filed pursuant to this section on the grounds of illegal, fraudulent or unconscionable conduct or any prohibited debt collection practice was brought in bad faith and for the purposes of harassment, the court may award the defendant reasonable attorney fees.

Fair Debt Collection