Man Wins $1.5M Over Profane Debt Collection Calls

June 1, 2010 — -- A jury has awarded a Texas man more than $1.5 million in a lawsuit over profane voicemail messages allegedly left by a collections agency.

Lawyers for Allen Jones, of Lewisville, Texas, say he was subjected to harassing phone calls from Advanced Call Center Technologies. Employees, lawyers said, used the n-word and the f-word and made racially-charged remarks about Jones, who is black.

In one voicemail message, a collector suggested that Jones "go pick some m*****f****** cotton fields," according to recordings provided by Jones' lawyers.

"It got out of control," Jones, 26, said. "It was horrific."

Dean Siotos, a lawyer for Advanced Call Center Technologies, called the language in the voicemails "indefensible" and said that the calls allegedly placed by ACT employees "must have been in some sort of personal attack unrelated to the business."

"It's not in any way, shape or form consistent with the way ACT's collection deparment attempted to collect debts," he said.

Two ACT employees named in Jones' lawsuit no longer work at the company, Siotos said. He said the company, which has headquarters in Pennsylvania, will wait until an official judgment is entered on the jury verdict before deciding whether to appeal. The jury issued its verdict last Friday.

Jones said that the collection calls took place in August, 2007 and stemmed from an $81 credit card debt. Jones said the he had actually paid off the debt at the time he started receiving calls from ACT, but the collections agents wouldn't stop calling even after he told them the debt was resolved.

The calls came as early as 6:30 a.m. and as late as 11 p.m., said lawyer Dean Malone, who along with Mark Frenkel, represented Jones in the case. In addition to profanity, one of the messages included a sexual message about Jones' wife, Malone said.

"It was just significant, over-the-top harassment," he said. "I've handled hundreds of these cases over the years. This is by far the worst I've ever seen."

After a two-week trial, a jury found ACT and its former employees had violated Texas debt collection rules and awarded Jones $50,000 for mental anguish, $143,000 in attorney's fees and $1.5 million in additional damages.