Federal Jury Awards Forklift Operator $500K In Suit Against Out-Of-Control Bill Collector

In San Jose, California, the San Jose Mercury News reports:

• With a straight back, short haircut and stern face, Manuel Faustos looks more like an Army sergeant than a farmworker, and he certainly doesn't sound like a happy man who stands to collect a lot of money from a bill-collection agency that hounded his family without mercy.

• "I don't care about the money,'' Faustos said in the kitchen of a modest tract home in Gonzales, a farming town an hour's drive south of Silicon Valley. A naturalized U.S. citizen, he and his wife, Luz, speak mostly Spanish. "It was never about the money. It was about protecting my family, providing for my wife and children. These people threatened to take it all away from me.''

• Sorry, he said, but he won't be laughing on his way to the bank to deposit a $500,000 check. That's how much money a federal jury recently granted the couple after a short trial in San Jose.

***

• According to court records, [Georgia-based Credigy Services Corp.'s] callers threatened to take their home and savings, garnish Manuel's wages as a forklift operator and ruin their credit. Desperate for help again, the couple turned to the Watsonville Law Center, a nonprofit agency that represents the rural poor. The law center hooked them up with attorney Balam Letona, a Santa Clara law school graduate who seemed to be heaven sent. [...] After nine days in court, the jurors [...] awarded the couple $100,000 in damages and $400,000 in punitive damages.(1)

For the rest of the story, see Farmworker couple wins $500,000 verdict against bill collector.

(1) As collection activities rise, more people will seek relief under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Federal law that regulates the conduct of debt collectors.