Debt buyers are about to face new rules about what they need to prove in court.
Some large-scale debt buyers purchase massive amounts of old debt and then go to court to collect default judgements. And critics have argued that the courts too often give a rubber stamp to loan sharks.
That's why Delegate Marcus Simon introduced a bill to increase the kind of evidence they'll need to present in court.
"Prove to me that you actually own the debt," Simon explains. "Where did you buy it? What's the chain of custody that it arrived in your hands? Prove to me the amount of the debt that you're claiming. How do you come up with this figure? Show to me that you've actually made genuine efforts to collect the debt from the person who you claim owes it. So, just some basic stuff that if any attorney were to show up on behalf of one of these clients, you'd ask the other side to prove it before they were allowed to get a judgment or could win the case."
His bill passed and was signed by the governor.
Jay Speer at the Virginia Poverty Law Center says the new law will provide some balance.
"It's important that people's rights are protected and their due process rights are protected, even if they don't have a lawyer, which in general district court, some very small percentage of people have lawyers. So, we've got to protect the people who don't have lawyers because there's usually a lawyer on the other side," according to Speer.
This summer, the court system will start rolling out new forms as a task force works out how to fully implement the new rules next year.
