Debt Collection Companies Have Hijacked the Justice System
Both this article and the ACLU report it&#x27;s based upon are ridiculously misleading. You don&#x27;t get arrested for owing a debt. You get a bench warrant issued for not showing up to court when you&#x27;ve been ordered to do so.<p>Debt collectors sue to get a court judgement against people who won&#x27;t otherwise pay, so they can use the power of the state to garnish wages, levy bank accounts, etc. It&#x27;s no surprise that they win in court. The debts are usually valid. It doesn&#x27;t help debtors&#x27; cases when they don&#x27;t show up. Then they get a default judgement.<p>Even with a judgement against you, you still won&#x27;t get arrested for not paying. But if you don&#x27;t, the creditor can then request a debtor&#x27;s examination to which the court requires you to show up. At the examination, you&#x27;ll be asked about your assets and income, so the creditor knows how to collect by force.<p>What happens if you don&#x27;t show up to a debtor&#x27;s examination? The creditor can ask the judge for a bench warrant against you. What happens next depends on the state and county. Sometimes the sheriff knocks on your door and gives you a piece of paper telling you to come to court, or else. Sometimes they do nothing until you get pulled over for some other reason and the warrant comes up.<p>In any case, what&#x27;s happening to some people is that they&#x27;re being sued over debts they owe, not showing up to court to defend themselves, getting default judgements against them, still not paying, getting summoned to court for a debtor&#x27;s examination, not showing up for that, and then getting a bench warrant issued.<p>If you don&#x27;t show up for jury duty, the judge can issue a bench warrant. They probably won&#x27;t, but they can. If you get subpoenaed and don&#x27;t show up, bench warrant.<p>All this is to say that far from the courts criminalizing debt or being manipulated by debt collectors, they are simply acting in their capacity to enforce civil judgements. You know, the seventh amendment? Suits at common law?