Can a debt collector sue me or have me arrested?

by Lawyer Referral Service Panelist

Many debt collector callers can be very abusive. Most of them get paid on commission. It is important to know that they are not allowed to threaten you. I get calls very frequently from people who tell me they received a phone call from a debt collector who said they were going to come and arrest them if they didn’t pay a certain amount of money to them. This is simply not true! There is no such thing as debtors’ jail in most states including Kentucky and Ohio. Unless you are writing bad checks, bad debt is not a criminal action, so you can’t go to jail. I get a lot of other calls from people who say that the debt collector tells them that they are going to sue them or that they have to be in court the next day. None of those things can happen unless you’ve received a certified letter in the mail, and your wages won’t be garnished unless you have received papers from the court.

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