Zombie Debt Haunts the Discharged
By Cathy Moran, California bankruptcy lawyer on Feb 24, 2007 in Discharge Violations
Delinquent debt is one of the hottest new “financial products”. Bad debt is bought and sold daily with little regard for whether the debtor has gotten a bankruptcy discharge. The buyer simply buys a data base of bad debt from a credit card company for pennies on the dollar and tries to collect. It’s called zombie debt.
Debtors who have gotten a discharge of their debts frequently get a demand letter from a debt buyer and assume their attorney screwed up. Usually it’s not so. The zombie debt buyer acquired the debtor’s account along with thousands of others, clueless that the debt is legally uncollectable.
If this happens to you, pull out your bankruptcy discharge order and the list of creditors in your case. Write the collector providing copies of discharge and the list of creditors. Keep a copy with proof of mailing. A second collection effort may be an actionable violation of the discharge injunction. Check your credit report also to make sure that zombie debt has not found its way back to your credit report.
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