Senate Bill No. 87
(By Senator Sharpe)
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[Introduced January 14, 1998; referred to the Committee
on the Judiciary.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section one hundred twenty-two,
article two, chapter forty-six-a of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended,
relating to the definition of a debt collector.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one hundred twenty-two, article two, chapter
forty-six-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read
as follows:
ARTICLE 2. CONSUMER CREDIT PROTECTION.
§46A-2-122. Definitions.
For the purposes of this section and sections one hundred
twenty-three, one hundred twenty-four, one hundred twenty-five,
one hundred twenty-six, one hundred twenty-seven, one hundred twenty-eight, one hundred twenty-nine and one hundred
twenty-nine-a of this article, the following terms shall have the
following meanings:
(a) "Consumer" means any natural person obligated or
allegedly obligated to pay any debt.
(b) "Claim" means any obligation or alleged obligation of a
consumer to pay money arising out of a transaction in which the
money, property, insurance or service which is the subject of the
transaction is primarily for personal, family or household
purposes, whether or not such obligation has been reduced to
judgment.
(c) "Debt collection" means any action, conduct or practice
of soliciting claims for collection or in the collection of
claims owed or due or alleged to be owed or due by a consumer.
(d) "Debt collector" means any person or organization
engaging directly or indirectly in debt collection. The term
includes any person or organization who sells or offers to sell
forms which are, or are represented to be, a collection system,
device or scheme, and are intended or calculated to be used to
collect claims a collection agency as defined in section two,
article sixteen, chapter forty-seven of the code of West
Virginia.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make the definition of
a debt collector in the West Virginia Consumer Credit and Protection Act consistent with the definition of collection
agency in the Collection Agency Act.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.