Central Mass. state senator seeks to reform debt collection practices
Image | Courtesy of Massachusetts State Senate
Senator James Eldridge (D - Middlesex and Worcester)
The Senate plans votes on Thursday on bills seeking to improve the fairness of debt collection practices, and to make clear that no one can be imprisoned for debt.
The Debt Collection Fairness Act (S 2713), which is advancing from the Senate Ways and Means Committee, updates consumer protection laws and "would help ensure that people are not pushed over a financial precipice when they are sued for debts that are often old, and have been bought by collectors, often at a significantly reduced rate," according to a bill summary.
The legislation, based on a bill filed by Sen. Jamie Eldridge, would increase the amount of wages protected from seizure from 50 percent of the state minimum wage ($750) or 85 percent of the workers' gross wages each week, to 65 times the minimum wage ($975) or 90 percent of what they take home each week, whichever is greater. It would also allow a worker to ask the court to exempt additional wages, according to the bill summary.
Eldridge's bill also seeks to reduce the statute of limitation for consumer debt from six years to five years, reduce interest rates charged to people after a court finds they owe debt from 12 to 3 percent and make clear the new rate is not retroactive.
Senate Ways and Means also polled a Sen. Nick Collins bill (S 1485) to regulate "hot work," or work involving welding, cutting, brazing or other flame-producing operations.
The bill, updated as S 2712, requires the Department of Fire Services to develop and operate a publicly accessible database to document written notices of code violations and fines from violations or noncompliance with state fire code. It seeks to ensure individuals maintain hot work training certification, and requires the Department of Fire Services to coordinate with the Department of Occupational Licensure and local code enforcement officers to compile the data on code violations.
Collins has sponsored this bill for a decade, after two Boston firefighters were killed in a fire in the Back Bay in 2014.
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