1 8 THECHRON ICLEOF STURBRIDGECOUNTRY
LIVINGTHESTURBRIDGETIMESMAGAZINE
r MUSINGSFROM LONG H ILL s
BY RICHARD M ORCHOE
GRIN & BEAR IT
Even if you owe the money, you might be able towin a court case
filed by the debt collector tryingto get it from you. Debt
collectors make mistakes and,when they do, there are ways to beat
them in court.
Say you know you owe the money, but ifyou dont know who the debt
collector is. Thentheres a fair chance hes not the one you owe it
to.When a debt collector buys a debt, the creditor heis buying it
from sells it to him by using whats calledan assignment. Many times
debt collectors buy debtin bulk, thousands of debts at the time,
and the pa-perwork is missing, or never even filled out.
Tell the judge that you have no idea who this per-son suing you
is, and make the debt collector pro-duce the assignment. He might
not be able to. If not,you win.
If he does produce the assignment, look at it care-fully. Is
this the first debt collector trying to collectthis debt? The
second? The third? Debt gets passedfrom collector to collector and,
as it passes, the yearspass too. Debt collectors only have a
certain periodof time, usually six years, to file a lawsuit.
Sometimes the statute of limitations passes on adebt. In that
case, not only can you win the lawsuit,you might also ask the judge
to award you damages.Debt collectors are not supposed to pursue
claimspast the statute of limitations.
There are a host of other rules they are supposedto follow and,
if theyve been calling you at night,calling you at work, swearing,
threatening to put youin jail or just generally harassing you, then
you canfile a countersuit against them.
In that case, say sure, you owe them the money,but they owe you
even more because of the nastyway theyve been behaving.
LEGALBRIEF
DEBT COLLECTORS
M O N T H L Y L E G A L A D V I C E
F O R R E A D E R S O F
T H E S T U R B R I D G E T I M E S M A G A Z I N E
ST URBRI DGE AT TORNEY
ROBERT A. GEORGE, ESQ.
I had planned to put the electric netting aroundthe bee hives
that day. It was getting late falland a marauder might find the
remaining honeytempting. Approaching our small apiary, I saw Iwas a
day late and set to salvaging what remained.
While working at that, the realization camethat there was a
crowd at the end of the driveway.That was odd, as a gathering
usually only hap-pens if there is an accident. I heard no crash.The
congregation was holding cell phones up totake pictures of
something in the wild life man-agement area across the street.
Moseying down to the road, a black form wasnoticeable about a
150 feet into the forest. It wasobvious that this was what everyone
was watch-ing. The late autumn day was slightly overcastand the
trees were mostly leafless. Still, the woodslooked lovely.
Catching up to the others, it was easy to dis-cern the object in
the forest was a bear and prob-ably the culprit that wreaked havoc
on the hives.Like everyone else, I was fascinated by the animalwho
seemed happy enough. Was he oblivious tous? That was hard to say.
Slowly, I moved to-ward our friend. Moving closer and closer, it
oc-curred to me that this might not be wisest courseof action.
There is the old Maine folk tale that goes; Twomen are walking
in the woods. The first man hasa pair of fine running shoes hanging
around hisneck. All of a sudden in the distance, they see a
bear heading toward them. The second fellowis about to start
running when he sees his com-panion sitting down and putting on the
run-ning shoes. The man blurts out, What goodare those shoes, you
cant outrun the bear.The first man says, I dont have to outrun
thebear.
Many of the people who had stopped towatch moved toward the bear
as well. I lookedthem over and was sure that if necessary, Iwould
not finish last in the race. It was hard tosay if we all made the
same calculation aboutdiscretion, but it seemed so as everyone
de-cided to move back toward the road.
That was probably a good idea as the bearstarted to move. The
animal did not go towardus, but parallel to the road. Maybe he
wentthat way because we bored him, or becausethere was a crowd and
he thought it politic toamble off. His pace was deliberate with no
signof panic.
All of a sudden he moved left crossing LongHill Road, and
climbed up on my land nearwhere it borders the neighbors. This
wasdone at a faster pace and his followers reactedat the same gait.
His activity made us thinkmaybe something was going on that
wouldlead to some climax. In my mind, as curiousas I was, it was a
mixed blessing.
Again, after a short pause, he, or was it she,Adjacent page
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(no one had the least desire to dowhat was necessary to
determinethat) again moved. By this time, thethrill, if not gone,
was waning. Wewanted action. Cmon, eat some-one..else. Okay, no one
really feltthat.
It moved on all fours down thesmall hill and came to a stop on
mydriveway. Stardom had clearly takensomething out of our ursine
friend.There was no further inclination todo anything else. His
fans, now a tadblas, started to depart. He was myguest, but though
I consider myselfa gracious host, there was no chanceI was going to
be the last person togo.
I left our newest family membersitting there. When I returned
nextday, I did not try to find him. He isprobably now in the middle
of a longwinters nap.
Several years ago, a neighbor saidhe always carries a gun when
he goesinto the forest. I did not follow hissuggestion. Since my
meeting withLittle Smoky, I have thought abouthis policy. Furry
critters abound inour neck of the woods. According toMassWildlife
the bears are somewhatshy of us though will they will
attackdefensively.
If you see a raccoon in daytime,give it a wide berth as it is
probablyrabid. Mostly, you are probably safeenough traveling in
woodland as wellas the trails of Sturbridge Country.
We feel it our responsibility toissue a Long Hill Guideline for
tra-versing the woods if you decide to gounarmed. Always wear well
fittingshoes or boots that will facilitate run-ning. Also, observe
the buddy systemand travel with a companion whocannot run as fast
as you and ofwhom you are not overly fond.
From page 17
Second Chance Grin and Bear ItFrom previous page
happens in their life, and they be-come disabled, she said.
Shouldthey have to give up the petstheyve loved and cared for
be-cause they cant afford somethingthats pretty simple to
treat?
Second Chance began offeringsubsidized care, allowing
low-in-come or elderly pet owners to takecare of their beloved
animals, inOctober 2013 to respond to whatBlancato called an
overwhelmingneed. Staff and volunteers at theshelter would see pets
come in fortheir low-cost rabies or spay andneuter services that
were in needof medical care that owners could-nt afford.
Rather than take those pets in,treat them and try to
re-homethem, Blancato said it made moresense to develop a clinic
wherepeople could pay reduced fees forthe veterinary care, and the
petscould stay in their home. In thelast 15 months the
subsidizedclinic has grown immensely, goingfrom just one vet to
eight. Thecare they provide helped SecondChance serve more than
16,000animals last year.
The clinic has state-of-the-artequipment and a staff of
talentedand certified veterinarians and vettechnicians. They
Wellness Clinicprovides routine exams, vaccina-tions,
micro-chipping, heartwormtreatment and preventative care,mass
removals, dental surgeries,cleaning and extractions. Vets canrun
diagnostic blood work on site,which means pet owners can havetheir
animals tested and treatedusually in just one trip. They canalso
treat ear, skin and urinary in-fections.
We pretty much see a little bitof everything, and a lot times,
wefind that something an owner is re-ally worried about is a
simple, easything to fix, said Blancato.
Currently, they have to refer outx-rays, but are hoping to
find
grants and donations to cover thecost to add a $35,000 x-ray
ma-chine to the clinic in the future.
There are residency require-ments to take advantage of
thesubsidized care at SecondChance Animal Shelter, but peo-ple do
have to meet income stan-dards to be eligible for reducedrate
services. To qualify, pet own-ers need to be below 150 percentof
the poverty level, and incomeverification is required.
As a general rule, if a personqualifies for some sort of
govern-ment assistance, they will qualifyfor the subsidized care,
saidBlancato.
And thanks to PetSmart Char-ities, subsidized care will soon
beon the move in the area. SecondChance received a grant to builda
mobile unit to take veterinarycare on the road. The unit shouldbe
ready in April.
It will help us get into thecommunities that cant get to us,said
Blancato. Were thrilled.
Those who do not qualify forthe chance subsidized care pro-gram
ca still use the wellnessclinic for their pets care. Theywill pay
the regular fees and allproceeds benefit the shelter pro-grams that
help pets in need.
For more information, or tomake a donation, visit
second-chanceanimals.org. The shelteroperates completely on
donationsand grants, with no governmentfunding. !
In general,if a person qualifies
for some sort ofgovernment assistance,
they will qualifyfor the subsidized
care here. SHERYL BLANCATOEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
SECOND CHANCE ANIMAL SHELTER
