Ontario Consumer Credit Assistance Inc

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The Law society of Upper Canada is holding a tribunal, regarding alleged questionable practices with respect to debt collection activity by Natale law firm. The Tribunal is scheduled for January 11 & 12, 2011, and is open to the public. Natale Law office's largest client is Global Credit & Collections Incorporated, which provides collection services to large Canadian banks and telecommunications companies. The two teamed up and produced a document which is referred to as a "Draft Statement Of Claim"; a court document which has been filled out, but NOT filed with the courts. This is a scare tactic which has been widely used by collection agencies (and some of their legal representatives) to shock you, the consumer (or as the collection agencies say, debtor), into paying a debt you may not be able to afford to pay. Government regulators across the country have criticized the use of these documents, and in fact Ontario's Registrar of Collection Agencies (Mr. Brian Pitkin) in a letter dated October 27, 2008, directly instructed ALL Ontario collection agencies to cease the use of these documents immediately. Also warning collection agencies operating in Ontario, not to hire law firms to send these letters demanding payment of an outstanding account, where the collection agency was not disclosed in the letter: ".. I believe the practice of enclosing a "draft" statement of claim is both deceitful and misleading. Subsection 2 of section 21 of the Collection Agencies Act provides me with the authority to order that letters, forms and the like that I believe are misleading or deceitful to not be used. This is not an order, but is advice that I find the practice objectionable for the reasons set out and therefore require to stop. Further complaints respecting this matter will result in an order directed to the agency involved." If you have been contacted by Natale Law Office, Global Credit & Collections Incorporated, or any other law firm or collection agency, and would like to know how OCCA can help, please contact us toll free, 1-866-873-6222, send us an email at info@occa.ca, or click here to get in touch with us online. Watch for updates on this topic, and new information on related stories, by continually checking out our Blog (and commenting if you like). You can also follow us on FaceBook click here and Twitter click here .

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