Tips on motions for an order of protection when you are sued for debt

Protection order motions are requests for the court to limit the other party’s engagement in certain behavior. In debt law cases, two situations are likely to occur with respect to discovery: limiting the types of discovery you request, and limiting the ability of parties to publish what they get. Neither of these things is generally helpful to people who are being sued for debt. It’s usually a good idea to oppose these moves.

Protective order limiting types or amount of discovery

If the parties are in a deposition (a situation similar to a taped interview under oath) and one party decides to invoke privilege and refuses to answer a question, the proper, often ignored, legal way to do it is to file a motion. . by protection order. The privilege invoked could be, for example, an attorney-client privilege or a husband-wife communication privilege. In either case, the refusal to answer a question in the deposition is supposed, under most rules of civil procedure, to be followed by a motion for an order of protection. That motion asks the court to consider whether the privilege should apply and, if so, to order the party seeking the information to stop seeking it.

As I say, this rule is often ignored and the requesting party is usually required to file a motion to compel.

More generally, if the other party asks a lot of intrusive questions or simply asks too many questions, one party could file a motion for an order of protection as a way to impose some kind of overall control over the discovery process. In debt law cases, this would almost always be bad for people who are being sued for debts: Debt collectors are typically not aggressive in discovery, and you need to know as much about your case as possible. So if the motion comes up, you usually have to oppose it.

Protective order limiting what you can do with Discovery

A much more likely use for a protection order in debt law cases is to try to limit the use of certain discovery. You could, for example, file a motion to try to prevent the other party from contacting or attempting to contact certain people. And this could arise, for example, if the debt collector was trying to communicate with the employer or friends of his. The argument would be that this was simply a way to circumvent Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) protections and damage relationships as part of a debt collection ploy. Or that the damage to these relationships would outweigh any possible legitimate discovery purpose of the discovery. In debt collection cases, because they usually involve small amounts of money, or people without a lot of money, it is relatively unlikely that this would arise because that type of discovery would be expensive to make. But it could

Posting Limitation of Protection Orders

Normally, materials discovered during litigation can be published if the party wishes. There is some information that debt collectors hate to reveal. They hate to reveal how much money they paid for the debts they bought. They call it a “trade secret,” but they probably don’t want to disclose the price because it’s too low or because there are other terms of the deal that they don’t really want to disclose (ie, that the debt is bought). with recourse” and technically goes back to the seller if you don’t pay, which could make them the wrong party to sue you and turn your lawsuit into an unfair debt collection practice.) In either case, you have the right to publish the information you receive from them if you wish, unless there is a protection order.

Can they post information about you? Well, according to the rules of civil procedure, they probably could. But the FDCPA would likely limit much of that, since it prevents debt collectors from contacting most people in an attempt to collect a debt.

Debt collectors hate publicity. They hate letting their prices out because it reveals how predatory they are. And posting information about debt collectors can garner help from other defendants. Therefore, protection orders generally do not benefit debt defendants when they limit advertising.

How to get a protective order

Protection orders may not add much protection to the FDCPA for a consumer against a debt collector, but remember that the FDCPA only protects “consumers” (not businesses) from “debt collectors” (not original creditors), so it might make sense to seek a protection order if you are not covered. You may also seek one because it adds some theoretical protection and defending against it would require the debt collector to pay more individual attention to your case. This could make you more willing to negotiate and settle, or dismiss the case against you.

The way to apply for a protection order is relatively easy. Check your rules of civil procedure to see if there are any specific requirements, but generally you just file a motion for a protection order and tell the court why you think you should have one. That is, you must tell the court the legal basis for granting your motion: what privilege or need you have. You may need to file a supporting memorandum that also tells the court why your motion should be granted, and then you may need to file the motion for argument and go to court and argue it.