The Truth About Warrants

To begin, there are many different types of warrants. Here are a few I'd like to bring to your attention. There's a Writ Warrant. This is a document issued by a judge. A Royal Warrant, which is a declaration to supply goods or services and a Finance Warrant; the right to buy or sell something without obligation. For the purpose of this article we will focus on the legal warrant also know as a Writ Warrant issued by a judge.

This brings me to recent headlines as well as disturbing news that collection agencies are using forceful tactics to obtain collections of debts from US Citizens stating that there is a warrant for their arrest if the debt is not paid.

Let's first define what a collection agency is. It's a commercial business that pursues payments of debts owed by individuals or businesses. Most collection agencies operate as agents for grantors of a loan or credit and collect those debts on an agreed fee basis. Now what you should know is that some businesses are operating as debt buyers and purchase debts from creditors for a fraction of the value of the debt and pursue the debtor for the full balance.

These are the companies that you have to watch out for since they bought the debt from the creditor or the grantor and allow the creditor to write that debt off the books and remove the debit from accounts receivable records.

This brings me to the point of collection agencies and the scrupulous and illegal methods used 'in debt collecting' and how this relates to warrants. What I recently learned that was most disturbing is that collection agencies were calling average citizens claiming they owed debts such as a car loan, medical bills etc... and that there was a warrant issued for their arrest. That is simply not true. No one can have a warrant out for their arrest for an outstanding dept or bad credit. Now on the other hand if you have skipped town for 5 years and have not paid alimony for your kids, then there is good probability that there is a arrest warrant issued somewhere for your arrest.

However with that said, lets call attention to calls made by collection agencies intimidating the public claiming they have warrants to collect debts, and have the right to arrest and imprison if you don't pay up. They go as far as claiming they are police officers to get you to comply. This is an illegal act and no one can legally impersonate a police officer to obtain information. Furthermore a police officer would not call you on the phone but go directly to your home to issue the warrant in hand.

Get the facts. Don't let debt collectors take advantage of you. Get as much information on the agencies as you can; phones numbers, address; names and if possible record the conversation. Call the authorities if you feel they're running a scam. In the mean time so you won't be hassled, tell the agencies not to call you again on this matter as it is being handled by your attorney or you will bring legal action against their organization.