The Legal Thought Pages

FDCPA laws fascinate me. They keep bill collectors from harassing people who owe debts, however, they do not cancel the debts themselves. I’m sure there are people who think that they do and eagerly call up bankruptcy lawyers in whatever city they live, expecting this to be some miraculous way that they get out of debt and never have to worry about it again. There’s a lot of strange laws in this country. In the state of New York, you can’t walk outside and pound two chalkboard erasers together. In the state of New Jersey, you can’t hang a rug out the window for it to dry. Of course these types of laws are never actually enforced. They were written into the legislature so long ago for whatever reason and now simply no longer apply to modern times. However, there is legal standing for someone to come along and enforce these laws and, probably, eventually, someone will. And it will probably be quite amusing. Can you imagine someone being arrested for cleaning chalkboard erasers and paying a fine? How about someone spending a night or two in jail because they were trying to dry a rug? Satirists will have a field day.