Law firm letterhead

[Anonymous]

Hello all!

This may seem like a bit of a strange question, but since I am a strong believer that experience often trumps qualifications, I'll ask anyway. 

I am a newly-minted attorney after the three year trudge through law school.  I am hoping to buy a house for my family within the next year or two, but I recently discovered a substantial amount of inaccuracies on my credit report.  So now I am faced with the dreaded dispute letters, et al., which I'm now gearing up to write to all three credit bureaus. 

Now, I'm lucky enough to be employed as an attorney at a fairly large law firm (we do not do consumer law, however), and I can easily write my dispute letters on my firm letterhead, making it very clear that I am an attorney. 

My question is: will the whole lawyer thing help or hinder (or have no effect at all)?  Those who have hired attorneys (or attorneys themselves), did you find any noticeable difference in the response received when it was done through an attorney?  You guys have all the experience, so please let me know.  If writing as a private individual is the better course, I have no problem doing so. 

Many thanks, 

Benchslap

[thom02099]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello all!

This may seem like a bit of a strange question, but since I am a strong believer that experience often trumps qualifications, I'll ask anyway. 

I am a newly-minted attorney after the three year trudge through law school.  I am hoping to buy a house for my family within the next year or two, but I recently discovered a substantial amount of inaccuracies on my credit report.  So now I am faced with the dreaded dispute letters, et al., which I'm now gearing up to write to all three credit bureaus. 

Now, I'm lucky enough to be employed as an attorney at a fairly large law firm (we do not do consumer law, however), and I can easily write my dispute letters on my firm letterhead, making it very clear that I am an attorney. 

My question is: will the whole lawyer thing help or hinder (or have no effect at all)?  Those who have hired attorneys (or attorneys themselves), did you find any noticeable difference in the response received when it was done through an attorney?  You guys have all the experience, so please let me know.  If writing as a private individual is the better course, I have no problem doing so. 

Many thanks, 

Benchslap

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Seems to me that, by using your legal letterhead, you would be misrepresenting the standing of your law firm.  The implication would be that your firm is behind your dispute.  They are not (by your own statement, they don't do consumer law).  It would be more prudent to submit as a private individual.

[Anonymous]

Do not use your law firm letter head for personal reasons. It can cost you your job. I know a few attorneys who have lost their jobs for doing similar things, so don't do it. 

[TheGardner]

I agree with the above. As an attorney you can throw big words at them though which is nice while making it clear that you are an attorney and not affraid to litigate the inaccuracies that may make them more likely to quickly resolve the issue.

** As this is a public forum so I feel I need to say this for future readers not the original poster. Representing yourself as an attorney if you are not one is illegal and should not be used as a tactic. It's fraud and a slew of other things that require fancy words. It's very easy to verify if an individual is indeed an attorney so this would get you no where except trouble. ***

[RobertEG]

Unrelated to use of your firm letterhead, have you considered sending direct disputes to the furnishers rather than disputing via the CRAs?

[Berk]

I am an electrician by trade and work for a company that does not do any residential work. If I go and work on a friend's house for free I do not drive my company truck to his house. I am falsely misrepresenting my company if I do that. It could potentially open them up to all types of liability. If, on the other hand, my company tells me to go and work on so and so's pool house then I do use my company vehicle because I have been told to do so by my company.

Of course, you could always hire yourself to represent yourself I suppose.

In the words of Abraham Lincoln: "He who represents himself has a fool for a client."

[UncleB]

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@thom02099 wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hello all!

This may seem like a bit of a strange question, but since I am a strong believer that experience often trumps qualifications, I'll ask anyway. 

I am a newly-minted attorney after the three year trudge through law school.  I am hoping to buy a house for my family within the next year or two, but I recently discovered a substantial amount of inaccuracies on my credit report.  So now I am faced with the dreaded dispute letters, et al., which I'm now gearing up to write to all three credit bureaus. 

Now, I'm lucky enough to be employed as an attorney at a fairly large law firm (we do not do consumer law, however), and I can easily write my dispute letters on my firm letterhead, making it very clear that I am an attorney. 

My question is: will the whole lawyer thing help or hinder (or have no effect at all)?  Those who have hired attorneys (or attorneys themselves), did you find any noticeable difference in the response received when it was done through an attorney?  You guys have all the experience, so please let me know.  If writing as a private individual is the better course, I have no problem doing so. 

Many thanks, 

Benchslap

---

Seems to me that, by using your legal letterhead, you would be misrepresenting the standing of your law firm.  The implication would be that your firm is behind your dispute.  They are not (by your own statement, they don't do consumer law).  It would be more prudent to submit as a private individual.

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+1

I can see all sorts of issues with this; it would be best to just avoid altogether.  Having worked for a large (Fortune 100) company before where I also had access to letterhead, I can say my employer would have disciplined someone for using it for personal reasons.  I imagine a law firm would be more strict, and even less forgiving.

I once had to deal with a very unreasonable collection agency (they were writing direct letters to my family members regarding my account).  At the bottom of the letter telling them to 'cease and desist', below my signature I "cc:" the letter to a law firm that was taking care of some unrelated business for me.  I didn't directly imply anything other than I was sending a copy of the letter to the firm; I left the "implying" up to the reader.  It must have worked, as I never had a problem with them writing letters to family members again. 

Possibly my work-around would be effective for you as well?

Good luck!

[StartingOver10]

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@RobertEG wrote:

Unrelated to use of your firm letterhead, have you considered sending direct disputes to the furnishers rather than disputing via the CRAs?

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OP, the others have covered your dilemma over letterhead. I agree that using your firm's letterhead is not the best course of action and could result in serious consequences to you.

I have highlighted the above for you because it is the best course of action, sans letterhead, for your circumstance. I have found direct disputes with the furnishers achieve the desired response much more quickly. Sometimes just one phone call gets it done. I had to dispute something with Nordstrom recently and it was done within 72 hours from the initial phone call.  

[jc7622]

The very first time I checked my credit reports (several years ago) they had several inaccuracies. I got them resolved even though I'm not an attorney. Maybe try first as an individual and give them a chance to fix it before throwing around the "A" word. If they resist you can always then take it up a notch.

[Kidcat]

As others have said do not use your firm letterhead. However you can write a letter and identify yourself as an attorney ie Esq. after your name or Attoeney at Law under your name. There is no harm in identifying yourself as an attorney in my experience, and in dealing with the more unscrupulous collection agencies it helped.  

With that said I know tons of folks that are not attorneys who have done a fantastic job of cleaning up their credit and as an avid reader of these forums I learned pretty much every thing I know about credit...fwiw.