Bankruptcy

A Law Unto Themselves?!

By Bob Lawless

A thank you to one of my students, Scott Wilson, for pointing me toward yesterday's front-page article in the Wall Street Journal about the growing phenomenon of "civil demand" that retailers are using against shoplifters. It was a new topic for me, although I am sure some Credit Slips readers were aware of it already. The article is worth reading.

It's very difficult to get people to see what is wrong with this system. No one could responsibly argue that shoplifters should not be held responsible for their actions and make restitution to their victims. What I see in this article, however, is troubling. It's the same pattern with the broader debt collection system, a system where a few abusive private actors essentially have become a law unto themselves. Their threats against uninformed consumers become shakedowns where the consumers have no choice but to pay.

This is not an indictment of debt collectors generally. Some of my best friends are debt collectors. Hey, I even did a few debt collections myself when I was in practice. The debt collection industry needs to stop its own bad actors before they get more regulation.

Full post as published by Credit Slips on February 21, 2008 (boomark / email).