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A cease and desist letter means exactly how it sounds. Cease means to stop, and desist, means not to do it again. Why would a person ever write a cease-and-desist letter anyway? Cease-and-desist letters come into play whenever there is a dispute about something. You are notifying the recipient of the letter, that if they do not stop doing something to you, that you are going to take legal action against them.

There are many forms of cease-and-desist letters, such as harassment, stalking, copyright and trademark infringements, neighbor property boundary disputes, slander,libel or labor to name a few.

When discussing cease-and-desist letters concerning debt and credit, typically the form of the letter is to stop the stalking and harassing behavior that some debt collection agencies may use to collect debt.

You may also need to write a cease-and-desist letter if you are the victim of identity theft and you receive harassing phone calls from a collection agency and they do not believe you. This type of cease-and-desist letter would also state the credit card company and the amount that is fraudulent, then you would file a dispute with the credit bureaus if you hadn't already done so, letting them know the incorrect information that is on your credit report. At that point, the credit bureau would then file a dispute with the creditor, and the creditor would be responsible for proving the information is correct. If the creditor can not provide the proper documentation to back up the debt, it will be removed from that listing and moved under the dispute file that is on your credit report. The dispute file is where all of your credit disputes are listed on your credit report.

Cease-and-Desist letters should not be taken lightly, and should only be used if necessary. For example, you are harassed by a collection agency several times a day, even in the middle of the night to pay your debt, and they threatened you with jail time because non-payment is a crime.

However, if the original lender has not sent you to collection, and they call you, you can not send them a cease-and-desist letter, it is only after they turn you over to a collection agency and you feel your rights have been violated under the FDCPA, or Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

This act was put in place for consumers' rights to be protected from certain forms of collection measures such as harassment, abuse, use of profane language, giving false information, make false implications, imply they are somebody else, publish your name saying that you would not pay your bills, threaten, insinuate that you have committed crimes, send you a postcard, deposit a post dated check before the date, or misinterpret the amount of the debt you owe, just to name a few. Some collection agencies might even threaten to take your property, but they can not unless it is done legally.

If someone feels that their rights have been violated, under the FDCPA, and it can be proved, they are allowed to sue within a year of the date that they were violated in federal or state court.

However, just because that you write a cease-and-desist letter, does mean that your creditor does not have a right to collect the debt owed to them, it just means they have to change they way they were trying to collect it.

Works Cited:
Wiipedia "Cease and desist" http://en.wikipedia.org (accessed 8/14/07)
The Fair Use Network "Cease and Desist" http://fairusenetwork.org> (accessed 8/14/07)
Family Credit Counseling Service "Creditor Harassment" http://www.familycredit.org (accessed 8/14/07)

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