Nasty Insult-Laden Collection Call Spurs Suit

Debt collectors are really just supposed to collect the debt.  What they’re not supposed to do is editorialize or cast aspersions on a debtor’s educational level, class, or geographical area.

Someone from Marshall and Ziolkowski Collections Agency forgot that.  Or they missed that day of training.

Dorothy Gilbert, a Rochester, New York, woman, has a voicemail message on her phone, allegedly left by an employee of Marshall and Ziolkowski, which goes a little something like this:

"First of all ma’am, that was pretty ignorant, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from you because you are totally ghetto.  Second of all, ma’am learn English, get an education instead of sitting on your fat derriere."

The collection agency is denying any wrong doing, suggesting that Gilbert has no way to prove that the call came from Marshall and Ziolkowski.  Gilbert counters: “He asked me, ‘How do you know it was us?’ And I said, ‘Baby I got caller I.D., how do you think I got your name and your number? It was on my caller I.D.’"

Civil rights attorney Van White is representing Gilbert.