Creditors pose distraction to our active-duty troops

By Journal Times staff

Wednesday, March 30, 2005 5:06 PM CST

"Support our troops."

A few more of those bumper sticker slogans of America's support for its men and women in service to their country need to be printed up and distributed gratis to mortgage companies, creditors and even some judges judging by recent news reports.

The New York Times this week cited a litany of rear-guard actions by financial companies dunning servicemen and servicewomen or their spouses despite federal laws limiting such actions.

The actions have ranged from attempted foreclosures by mortgage companies and lawsuits by creditors to seizures of cars and other possessions to cover unpaid storage fees.

The notion that an active-duty soldier's family could be threatened with the loss of their home while the soldier is thousands of miles away risking life and limb doing their country's bidding is loathsome.

Military men and women just might have other things on their mind, things like their mission and staying alive.

Congress apparently agrees. Since before World War II, federal law has protected service members from repossessions or foreclosures without a court order, capped interest on interest rates if military service has reduced their income, forbidden judges to find them in default unless the court has appointed a lawyer to represent their interests; and given them a number of other protections.

The law, the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act, was updated and strengthened in 2003 after the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

In some cases, no doubt, the instances of collection aggression is due to misunderstanding or lack of knowledge of the law. Some of it too, can probably be chalked up to failure to properly notify lending institutions, credit card companies or other creditors of the soldier's military commitment.

Those who deal professionally with such questions owe it to themselves, not to mention our men and women in service, to get acquainted with the protections afforded those on active duty and they should do it soon.

Until they do, they should stand down.

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