Debtors Have Rights Too

The telephone calls can come at all hours: We’ll tell your friends at church that you don’t pay your debts. We’ll turn you in to child protective services for being a bad parent. Take out a loan on your home so you can pay us back.

Many people whose outstanding debts have been turned over to collection agencies endure threats, profanity and harassment over the telephone. What they might not know is that they don’t have to take it.

That’s what Edgar Coronado, a staff attorney with Public Counsel, will talk about at a consumer protection workshop in Los Angeles tonight.

“Many people don’t know their rights and they do not know what these agencies can and cannot legally do,” Coronado said. “I give them a laundry list of what they should watch out for.”

Public Counsel is co-sponsoring the seminar with Dunbar Economic Development Corp., a nonprofit community agency. The event, which is free, will also cover credit card fraud.

The program will be presented in Spanish on Monday.

Time and Place: 6 to 8 p.m. Dunbar Hotel, 4225 S. Central Ave., Los Angeles.

Information: (213) 234-7882.

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