Legal Question in Family Law in New York

My question is related to privacy of my personal information. I dated someone who works at a collection agency, and since the end of our relationship he has used work resources to find out information about me, my family, a few of my friends, and even my new boyfriend. He "skip traced" my boyfriend's license plate number in order to find out more information about him, and since then has also found his employer's information and contacted them yesterday. How is this legal and what can I do or who can I call to, #1 stop the harassment, and #2 force him to stop? I have no debt with his company, and neither do my friends and family, so there is no reason for him to be looking up any of my information. I feel that this is an invasion of privacy, and that he should be held responsible. I'm also concerned that he will find ways of ruining my credit or causing me more trouble.

I also don't know if this would be considered a Harassment or Family Law situation as we were previously in an "intimate relationship", or if it would be considered more of a Collection/Debt issue, since he's finding all of this information while at work using his work resources? I just don't know where to begin standing my ground about this invasion of privacy.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!


Asked on 4/30/14, 7:38 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

jeffrey lazroe Jeffrey A. Lazroe attorney at law

What you have described is very disturbing.

1. Your immediate remedy is for your boyfriend to contact an attorney to bring an action against the collection agency and your ex for violations of the fair debt and collection law. There could be significant financial reward for your friend.

2, Once the collection agency finds out what your ex did, they will fire him for cause to protect themselves from lawsuits.

3. Depending on the method that your ex used to find out about your boyfriend from the department of motor vehicles, this may result in a criminal action against him. The information obtained can only be used for a legal purpose, and since your current has no debt, it is improper for your ex to use goverment agencies for this purpose.

Jeffrey A. Lazroe, Attorney at Law, 37 Franklin Street, Buffalo, New York 14202

716-856-8811

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Answered on 4/30/14, 8:11 am


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