Law Office of Rick Morin, PC

You’re done with your bankruptcy! Congratulations on achieving a fresh start on your finances. Now you need to start rebuilding your credit. But wait: a nefarious creditor has started contacting you about one of your pre-bankruptcy debts. What To Do If a Creditor Contacts You After Bankruptcy?

There are a few reasons why a pre-bankruptcy creditor might try to contact you after your case has been discharged. It could be an innocent mistake. You should inform the creditor that you declared bankruptcy and already received your bankruptcy discharge. The creditor will likely want to know your bankruptcy case number for their records. While technically contacting you after your debts have been discharged is illegal (mistake or not), as long as the creditor stops bugging you it’s not that big of a deal.

However, not all post-bankruptcy contact is a result of an innocent mistake. Some creditors are sloppy with their handling of bankruptcy cases and habitually violate bankruptcy law by contacting debtors. In these cases, my office is very aggressive about making sure that the creditor fixes these mistakes.

Other creditors actually intend to violate bankruptcy law and pursue debtors after discharge. They hope that a debtor isn’t familiar with post-bankruptcy laws and they try to trick debtors into paying back a debt. Others will put incorrect items on a debtor’s credit report at an inopportune time, and will demand payment to take the credit item off of the report. These activities are highly illegal and the bankruptcy courts have the power to order sanctions against devious creditors. Placing incorrect items on a credit report is a violation of federal law and gives rise to additional legal claims against a creditor.

I advise all of my clients to be vigilant during and after their bankruptcies for illegal conduct by their creditors. In some cases I can bring legal action against these creditors and obtain damages for the client!

Don’t ignore post-bankruptcy communications from your creditors. Contact me at (916) 333-2222 if you suspect that a creditor is harassing you or ignoring your bankruptcy discharge.