# Debtor rights overview You have rights when a collector contacts you. Here's what they are, in plain language. > This is general information, not legal advice. For your specific situation, talk to a lawyer. This page is reviewed by counsel; see date at bottom. ## You can ask for proof of the debt If we contact you about a debt, you can ask for verification. We will collect documentation from the business and send it to you. Collection pauses until we do. You can ask within **30 days** of our first contact with you (for individual/sole-proprietor debts under FDCPA). For commercial debts, we extend the same right by policy even where the law does not strictly require it. ## You can dispute the debt If you disagree, [open a dispute](/for-debtors/debtor-portal/opening-a-dispute.md). All contact pauses. The business has 30 days to respond. ## You can ask us to stop contacting you Tell us to stop and we will. This is your right under federal law (with some nuance — see [How to stop contact](/for-debtors/compliance-and-rights/how-to-stop-contact.md) for the details). We honor verbal requests even where the law requires written. ## You can be free from harassment We may not: * Threaten violence or physical harm. * Use obscene or profane language. * Call at unreasonable hours (before 8 am or after 9 pm in your time zone, unless you agreed otherwise). * Call so often that the calls amount to harassment. * Make false statements about who we are or what you owe. * Threaten consequences we don't intend to take. * Threaten consequences we couldn't legally take (e.g., arrest for unpaid business debt — we can't and won't). * Tell people who shouldn't know about your debt. If any of this happens, [contact us immediately](/troubleshooting/contact-support.md) or report to a regulator. ## You can have a lawyer represent you Hire a lawyer if you want. Tell us their contact information. From that point on, we communicate with your lawyer about this debt, not you. This is required by federal law: 15 U.S.C. § 1692c(a)(2). We follow it. ## You can be free from unauthorized disclosure We may not tell other people about your debt — not your family, not your colleagues, not your neighbors. The only exceptions: * Your attorney. * Anyone you authorize. * Yourself. * A court if compelled by legal process. If we call a phone number and someone other than you picks up, we don't reveal the nature of the call. ## You can record us If we record our calls with you, you can record us back. This is fair. In all-party-consent states, we already disclose the recording — so the conversation is on the record from both sides. The platform's voice agent operates out of Delaware by default (`platform_caller_state="DE"`), which is itself an all-party state, so the all-party rule typically applies to every leg of every call (the "Kearney rule": if either leg is in an all-party state, the stricter rule governs the whole call). ## You can request information be corrected If something in our records about you is wrong (your name, your address, your business entity, the debt amount), you can ask us to correct it. We will: 1. Look into it. 2. Correct what's wrong. 3. Notify you of what was done. ## You can complain If you believe we violated your rights: * **File a complaint with us.** `compliance@moderncollections.io`. * **File a complaint with the CFPB.** `consumerfinance.gov/complaint/`. * **File a complaint with the FTC.** `reportfraud.ftc.gov`. * **File a complaint with your state attorney general.** * **Sue.** Many consumer-protection attorneys take FDCPA cases on contingency. ## Special rights for sole proprietors and individuals FDCPA applies in full when the debtor is an individual or sole proprietor without a separate legal entity. That means: * The initial validation notice (first contact must include specific information). * The 30-day dispute right with mandatory pause. * Strict prohibitions on harassment. * A stop-contact obligation when requested in writing. If you are a corporation, LLC, or other formal entity, FDCPA does not directly apply — but state laws and our own practices do. ## State-specific rights Several states have their own laws that the compliance engine encodes on top of federal rules: * **California** — the engine treats CA as high-risk. SB 1286 (Rosenthal extension) applies to commercial debt under $500,000, though AB 1521 (effective Jan 1 2026) carves out B2B trade-credit invoices. AB 2905 requires AI disclosure within 10 seconds of the call connecting. CA is also an all-party recording-consent state with a 7-calls-in-7-days frequency cap. * **New York** — NYC SHIELD Rule (effective Sept 1 2026) caps contact at 3 per 7 days across all channels for debtors in NYC boroughs. * **Texas** — SB 140 requires AI disclosure within 30 seconds. * **Colorado** — the CO AI Act was stayed by a federal magistrate in April 2026 but our engine still treats AI disclosure as conservatively required. * **Illinois, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida, Washington, and others** — all-party recording-consent states; the engine enforces consent-soliciting language in those calls. The full state matrix is in `config/compliance/states.json` and the engine applies the strictest applicable rule per call. *** Last reviewed: 2026-05-12 by Compliance Lead. **TODO: external counsel review (P0 — must be reviewed before publish).** --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://help.moderncollections.io/for-debtors/compliance-and-rights/debtor-rights-overview.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. 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