Texas § FI.392.301 - THREATS OR COERCION

§ FI.392.301. THREATS OR COERCION

THREATS OR COERCION. (a) In debt collection, a debt collector may not use threats, coercion, or attempts to coerce that employ any of the following practices: (1) using or threatening to use violence or other criminal means to cause harm to a person or property of a person; (2) accusing falsely or threatening to accuse falsely a person of fraud or any other crime; (3) representing or threatening to represent to any person other than the consumer that a consumer is wilfully refusing to pay a nondisputed consumer debt when the debt is in dispute and the consumer has notified in writing the debt collector of the dispute; (4) threatening to sell or assign to another the obligation of the consumer and falsely representing that the result of the sale or assignment would be that the consumer would lose a defense to the consumer debt or would be subject to illegal collection attempts; (5) threatening that the debtor will be arrested for nonpayment of a consumer debt without proper court proceedings; (6) threatening to file a charge, complaint, or criminal action against a debtor when the debtor has not violated a criminal law; (7) threatening that nonpayment of a consumer debt will result in the seizure, repossession, or sale of the person's property without proper court proceedings; or (8) threatening to take an action prohibited by law. (b) Subsection (a) does not prevent a debt collector from: (1) informing a debtor that the debtor may be arrested after proper court proceedings if the debtor has violated a criminal law of this state; (2) threatening to institute civil lawsuits or other judicial proceedings to collect a consumer debt; or (3) exercising or threatening to exercise a statutory or contractual right of seizure, repossession, or sale that does not require court proceedings. Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1008, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.