Woburn Woman Sues Norwell Debt Collection Agency
August 26, 2011
By Jon Chesto
NORWELL - A Woburn woman says she was harassed so frequently by a debt collection company in Norwell, she finally decided to sue the company.
And she wasn't even the debtor.
In a lawsuit filed in Boston federal court this week against EOS CCA, Doreen Caliri claims the company was relentless in its efforts to collect an unspecified amount of debt that her son-in-law owed.
Within the past year, the company has placed up to three calls a day to her home phone in an effort to locate her son-in-law, Caliri's lawsuit claims. She says she informed EOS CCA that her son-in-law doesn't live with her and requested that the company stop calling. She also mentioned that she had recently undergone lung surgery and that the company's calls were causing her stress and anxiety, according to the suit.
However, EOS CCA reps continued to call her house. The company, according to the suit, also placed automated calls with prerecorded voice messages on her home line in an attempt to collect the debt.
Caliri's lawsuit alleges that EOS CCA violated a federal debt collection law and state and federal consumer protection laws.
Sergei Lemberg, a Stamford, Conn., lawyer who is representing Caliri, said the allegations against EOS CCA are consistent with claims in other lawsuits he has filed against the company on behalf of other clients. Lemberg said the tactics outlined in the lawsuit are not unusual in the debt collection industry.
"What generally prompts a consumer to call a lawyer (is) when they are unable to get the redress they're seeking through any less complicated means known to them," he said.
A representative for EOS CCA said the company doesn't typically comment about pending litigation.
