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Printer friendlyMark Silverthorn's complaint of September 29, 2009, to the British Columbia Business Practices and Consumer Protection Authority
In 2009 lawyer Mark Silverthorn was busy writing his book titled The Wolf At The Door: What To Do When Collection Agencies Come Calling. In 2008 and 2009 consumer lawyer Mark Silverthorn had received several complaints involving a collection lawyer Deanna Natale. One such complaint involved conduct on the part of Natale Law Offices that Mark Silverthorn felt warranted suspending work on completing his book to make a complaint against Deanna Natale to the British Columbia Business Practices and Consumer Protection Authority. Accordingly, Mark Silverthorn wrote a letter dated September 29, 2009, to Ms. Melanie Flint, Director of Investigations and Enforcement, with the British Columbia Business Practices and Consumer Protection Authority. In this letter of complaint Mark Silverthorn referred to a draft statement of claim from Natale Law Offices dated July 10, 2009, on behalf of a U.S. debt buyer, AFS USA, or Arrow Financial Services USA, sent to a resident of Clearwater, British Columbia, in circumstances where no monies were owing because the account was more than six years old and therefore the debt was extinguished pursuant to subsection 9(1) of the British Columbia Limitation Act, S.B.C. 1996, ch. 266.
In order to confirm that the debt did, in fact, no longer exist, lawyer Mark Silverthorn phoned Natale Law Offices on behalf of his client on September 28, 2009, to speak to someone to confirm the date of last payment on this account. During this telephone conversation a legal assistant at Natale Law Offices made the following statement with respect to this account, that the "last charge date was January 15, 2001... this is a really old debt" and that he would transfer the call to Ms. Natale. Unfortuantely, Ms. Natale did not take the call and the call went to Ms. Natale's voicemail. Click here to listen to Mark Silverthorn's telephone conversation of September 28, 2009, with a legal assistant in the office of lawyer Deanna Natale.
From the What Were They Thinking File
If you look carefully at the aforementioned draft statement of claim dated July 10, 2009, from Natale Law Offices to a resident of Clearwater, British Columbia, you will note that nowhere in the letter is the name of the original creditor mentioned. The draft statement of claim demands payment of $8,978.01 on behalf of AFS US Inc. (GE & AFS Unclassified). How many Canadians know that AFS US Inc. is a U.S. debt buyer, Arrow Financial Services, a company that buys old debts from creditors? Lawyer Mark Silverthorn did not learn the name of his client's alleged original creditor until such time that he phoned Natale Law Offices. This phone call that Mark Silverthorn made to Natale Law Offices on September 28, 2009, was very informative. Not only did consumer lawyer Mark Silverthorn learn that his client's alleged indebtedness was to Wells Fargo but also that the date of the last payment on the account was eight years earlier which meant that the debt was extinguished under the British Columbia Limitation Act and consequently even if his client was the right person, the debt had been extinguished and therefore no longer existed.
Is it any wonder that after receiving the aforementioned draft statement of claim from Natale Law Offices that the recipient, a resident of Clearwater, British Columbia, phoned the local detachment of the RCMP to make a police report involving a collection scam? How many Canadians would pay an eight year-old account to a company they never heard of when the collection agent did not even have the wherewithal to provide the consumer with the name of the original creditor?
One can only wonder what Ms. Natale was doing when she signed this collection letter?
