Stay Safe on the Road Through Defensive Driving Tactics

Everybody has to drive. We all rely on our cars for necessary commuting and recreational travel. But so many cars on the road make it difficult to feel totally confident that we will reach every destination intact. Accidents happen. If you are in an accident, your status quo is turned upside-down. If the accident is minor you can take a check from the insurance company to your local body shop, put a band-aid on your scratches, and get back to normal. If the accident is more serious, getting back to normal takes more effort, time, and money. If you live in Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh personal accident attorney can help you to sort things out and get the resources to cover your medical needs and replace your car. A Pittsburgh personal injury attorney has the knowledge and experience to bring order to the chaos in your life.

However, avoiding an accident is always preferable to surviving one. The best way to avoid an accident is to practice what is commonly called defensive driving. The concept of defensive driving is that the driver pays close attention to all of the traffic around him and anticipates the possible actions of the other drivers to be able to be able to react quickly in order to avoid or prevent a possible accident. For example, be aware of the blind spot. I am sure that you have had experiences of trying to change lanes. In this instance, you hope that the person in your blind spot is practicing defensive driving to react quickly to your "misstep" and avoid a fender bender. You need to turn this scenario around and think of yourself as being in the blind spot of another driver. Keep a sufficient distance between your car and the one in front of you so that, in case you are in another driver's blind spot, you can easily give him room to fit into the space in front of you.

Another important safety point is to concentrate on your driving. Keep your eyes on the road in front of you, but also always be aware of what is happening behind you and to each side. And do not do anything but control the car. That means you need to stay off your cell phone. Do not make calls, do not text, and do not carry on long, involved conversations. Another source of distraction is the radio. The radio is a bigger problem for younger drivers because they lack experience and because the song that is playing is such an important part of the driving experience for them.

The last bit of advice for defensive driving is to keep your cool. If the driver behind you wants to get in front of you, just let him. What difference does it make to your arrival time? (Of course, do not hold up traffic. Travel with the flow.) Never do anything that would work another driver into a case of road rage.

Last of all; remember that if we all drive cooperatively, we will all get to our destinations more easily.

FDCPA - Illegal Debt Collection Tactics

We hear about illegal debt collection tactics every day at our law firm. The debt collector threatens to garnish wages or press fraud charges. Threats of jail time or job loss are common as well.

Maybe the collector contacts friends, family or neighbors to discuss the debt with them, or, to embarrass you into paying. We have also seen letters sent to employers asking them to garnish wages.

All of these collection tactics are illegal according to the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The FDCPA is a federal law that governs the rights that you have as a debtor and the activities that a debt collector can engage in when trying to collect on a debt.

Let's take a look at some of the above listed threats and discuss why they are illegal. The first threat, wage garnishment, is a very common threat. In the state where I practice law, Pennsylvania, wage garnishment cannot occur on a credit card case, ever. To make a threat of wage garnishment in Pennsylvania is illegal as per the FDCPA. The reason is that the FDCPA makes it illegal for a debt collector to threaten activity that it cannot carry out. Since wage garnishment cannot occur in PA for credit card debt, the threat of wage garnishment is illegal.

Another common illegal debt collection tactic is to threaten jail time. "Pay this debt or we are going to press charges and you will go to jail". There is no law in the United States that will cause you to go to jail for not paying a credit card debt. Because jail time cannot occur where you have failed to pay a credit card debt, the threat of jail time is illegal.

In many instances, the debt collector will contact your friends, family or neighbors to either get them to pay the debt or to embarrass you into paying the debt. A debt collector may not contact friends, family or neighbors regarding your debt except for under very limited circumstances. The only circumstance where the collector may contact friends, family or neighbors is when they are unable to locate you after making a good faith effort. In that specific instance, the debt collector may contact others to ascertain your location and contact information. Under no circumstances may the debt collector discuss your debt with anyone other than you.

If all of these tactics are illegal, why do debt collectors engage in them? Simple, its very effective to do so. If they call 100 people and use these illegal tactics, maybe 60 of them will pay something to the collector. Of the remaining 40, maybe only one or two will be bright enough to contact a consumer attorney who will then sue the debt collector for violating the FDCPA. (The above numbers are completely made up as an example for you). Anyways, in this hypothetical, you can see that they debt collector will be willing to use illegal tactics and violate the FDCPA because the return on investment is there for them. They make a lot of money using these illegal tactics.