Violation of the Bankruptcy Discharge Injunction may have you seeing Green!

What happens when a creditor takes some action in violation of the Bankruptcy Judge’s Discharge Order?  Several things can happen.  First, you can do nothing.  If you choose this option, guess what, nothing will happen, and the Creditor will perform the same stunt on the next person until someone takes action.  Second, you can contact your attorney, describe the action taken by the creditor, and request that he pursue the creditor for a violation of the Bankruptcy Judge’s Discharge Order.  Depending upon how egregious the Creditor’s actions, you may be entitled to money damages in the form of actual and/or statutory damages.  The best part is that the Creditor will pay your attorney’s fees for you.

For example, my client Ms. A. ( who is by the way a very sweet woman) filed bankruptcy several years ago and received her discharge.  AT&T was one of her creditors who we listed in her bankruptcy schedules.  We also listed four (4) collection agencies that AT&T hired to collect the debt.  I felt comfortable that with that type of notice we would never hear from AT&T again.  Boy was I wrong, two years after the Bankruptcy Judge’s Discharge Order, AT&T assigned the debt for collection.

Ms. A was horrified that AT&T was trying to collect the debt.  So we sued AT&T and the collection agency.  The case was settled shortly thereafter.  Ms. A was very happy with the settlement which netted her four times (4X) more than she paid in attorney’s fees to file the bankruptcy case.  Of course, AT&T admitted no liability and disputed all allegations of wrongdoing.