It’s that time of year, when the leaves turn, the air is crisp and I’m looking forward to the wonderful holiday of Thanksgiving. To many people, that means, first and foremost, a four-day weekend.

In our personal and professional lives, it often appears that we are moving at 100 miles per hour. Because we are in the race of life, there is no finish line. It seemingly goes on forever. And as Forest Gump said, “I just kept running and running.”

I ask, “Why? Why do we keep running?” I’m sure a question like that will stir up all kinds of responses. Some will have a positive twist and some will not. Even though we should give thanks on a daily basis, for some reason, many of us don’t stop running long enough to do it. We wait until that four-day Thanksgiving weekend in November.

You never know who will read what you write. Even if your initial purpose in writing is not to market your firm, what you say and how you say it could have either a positive or negative effect on the reader. The person who reads your blog, article, letter, press release, marketing email or web page could be your next biggest client…or NOT! Don’t take a chance! Consider these tips for persuasive writing in almost every written document that leaves your office. And of course, remember to use Spell/Grammar Check!

Begin with something that grabs attention and makes the reader want to keep reading. A busy reader might only read the first 2-3 sentences you write. If it’s boring and all about you or your firm, chances are they won’t go any farther. Or they will just skim the contents to find something they have to know.

If you’ve never been to a Subrogation conference, I encourage you to attend the next annual conference of the National Association of Subrogation Professionals (NASP). I just returned from NASP’s 2013 “Set Sail for Subro” conference, held this year in San Diego, CA, at the Hilton on Bayfront. If I could sum up this conference in just a few words, they would be Entertaining, Educational & Great Networking!

On September 26th, we posted a blog titled Ten Tips: How to Get the Most Marketing Benefit from NL Membership $$. Perhaps you noticed that, for several of the tips, we can’t help you unless you first help us. They require that you be proactive in telling NL what you can help your clients with so that we can convince prospective clients that your firm is the right choice for them.

NY DFS and NY UCS both asserting the right to regulate NY debt collection attorneys.

The NY Department of Financial Services (DFS) and the NY Unified Court System (UCS) have both recently proposed new laws and regulations that would impose more control over debt collection attorneys and the industry within NY State.

Scott E. Wortman, Esq., Partner with Mel S. Harris and Associates, LLC, and author of the NL white paper on NY State Debt Collection Laws, told NL, “There is definitely a link between the UCS’s attempts to promote positive and realistic change, and the efforts undertaken by the DFS to govern this already hyper-regulated and scrutinized industry, based entirely on unsubstantiated embellishments in support of a false narrative.”

Randy Nicola, Vice President of the National List of Attorneys and a strong supporter of the National Association of Retail Collection Attorneys, first takes us back in time. “NARCA held their first conference in 1993, in Las Vegas, NV. NARCA Founder and then Acting President was attorney Don Kramer, of St. Louis, MO. I was not able to attend this first meeting, but I was able to attend the following year, and I have not missed a NARCA conference since.

National List vendor partner IAT SmartDial recently announced the publication of a complimentary white paper with a somewhat unique twist. It’s entitled “7 Questions to Ask Before Selecting Your Next Dialing Technology.” What struck me as unusual is that they are not questions to ask the dialer vendors under consideration, but questions to ask yourself, even before you go “shopping.” They are also relevant questions to consider before any major technology or service purchase.

Do you need to forward accounts to an attorney? Savvy forwarders and other debt collection professionals are using The National List of Attorneys’ free services to do the “legwork” of qualifying their attorneys—matching the clients’ needs to the attorney who is most qualified and able to assist them. Not only does NL clear attorneys for rates, time constraints, minimum or maximum number of claims, or other conflicts, we also ensure that the attorney meets the clients’ operational needs, such as collection software used, collectors on staff, suit requirements, etc. Forwarders who are registering their claims with The National List, have a “middleman” to provide those and additional services for them. NL acts as an extension of their office, with knowledgeable people standing by to go the extra mile to help them.

On September 3rd, I read an InsideARM report by Patrick Lunsford, titled Pennsylvania Introduces Bill Requiring More Debt Collector Disclosures. It stated, “Pennsylvania recently became the latest state to target the information debt collection agencies provide to consumers with the introduction of House Bill 1633. Sponsored by Rep. Peter Daley, a Democrat serving southwestern Pennsylvania, the bill would require collectors to disclose the applicable statute of limitations on an account in initial communications, among other things….The new proposals would apply to both third party debt collectors and creditors.”

On Sept. 25^th, InsideARM sent out a “News Alert” with the headline “FTC Settles with Debt Collector for $1 million in its First Text Messaging Case.” (caps theirs) The headline initially made me think that the “big news” and the $1 million settlement were directly related to contacting a debtor using text messages. I immediately clicked on “Read the story.”

A careful reading of page two did not back up my assumption. The “unlawful manner” in which the defendants attempted to collect debts didn’t actually have anything to do with it being specifically via text messaging. The settlement was the result of violating both the FDCPA and the FTC Act. It addition to using text messages, the defendants used phone calls and mailings—in which they failed to disclose that they were debt collectors. They also falsely portrayed themselves as law firms by using deceptive company names and by threatening to sue consumers or garnish their wages for not paying their debts. In the process, they allegedly revealed debts to the consumers’ family members, friends and co-workers.

Your membership in The National List of Attorneys can be a big boost to your marketing efforts and worth every penny of your membership fees, if you follow Ten Tips.

Our smiling faces tell it all. The DCS Conference we attended last week at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas, NV, was very worthwhile and enjoyable for both of us. We were proud that NL was one of the sponsors.

Kacey: DCS (Debt Connection Symposium and Expo) is a great networking event and is always held in a superb location. The Red Rock Resort provides all the amenities (including a bowling alley, cinema and beautiful reception rooms) a conference-goer could ask for. DCS was organized by Dennis and Judy Hammond, along with Resource Management Services, Inc. (RMS), to provide attorneys, debt buyers, collection agencies and vendors the opportunity to network with one another through sessions, roundtables, panels, debates and fun activities.

On the same day (Sept. 5^th) that InsideARM announced, “A federal judge in Pennsylvania has ruled that the TCPA does not apply to debt-collection calls, even calls made to cellular telephones,” IAT announced the release of SmartCell, a manual dialing application developed for contacting cell phones. Although the PA decision is a local one, it could be a precedent-setting case in the growing number of confusing interpretations of the TCPA.

“SmartCell does not have predictive/automated dialing or number generation capabilities,” therefore, it seems to provide a solution to a situations similar to one where a federal court in Wisconsin ruled that “preview dialing,” a form of automated dialing that requires human intervention to initiate the call, fell within the TCPA’s coverage because, although it did not use the predicative dialer, it still had the capacity to perform “predictive dialing.” The decision was later vacated by the court and the case dismissed.

In an article in the CLLA April/May/June magazine, Timothy Wan wrote, “As an attorney, I pride myself on being meaningfully involved in the cases that I champion for my clients. One of the most basic things is adequately reviewing documentation.” He then went on to share his experience with a case where the opposing counsel clearly had not read or digested the relevant documentation and was unprepared to defend the case. He was not “meaningfully involved.”

Regardless of whether you are the attorney or the client, many problems can be prevented by providing and/or being thoroughly familiar with relevant documentation, and by making sure that you are prompt in responding to any form of communication.

A great little success story related to being on LinkedIn was shared with the NL Staff recently by Kacey Rask, NL Account Executive. We think our blog followers will enjoy and could even benefit from the story.

Kacey reported, “Katie transferred a call to me from a gentleman who wanted to be approved on our website. In speaking with him, I found out that he operates a full-service collection agency that focuses in credit, collections and accounts receivables. Additionally, over the years, he has created his own attorney network, but he wasn’t aware of The National List of Attorneys. I asked him, ‘How did you find NL?’  He replied, ‘Funny story! I found you all on LinkedIn.’  I asked if he had seen our LinkedIn Group, and he said, ‘No, actually a good friend of mine connected with one of your office members, and the connection came up on my main screen. Since I hadn’t heard of your company prior to that, I immediately went to your website to do a little investigating. And here I am calling you.’”

Kacey wanted to share her experience because, “I truly believe LinkedIn is an amazing networking tool, and every connection makes a difference. Every LinkedIn connection counts!”