As used in ORS 697.005 to 697.095:
(1)(a) “Collection agency” means:
(A) Any person directly or indirectly engaged in soliciting claims for collection, or collecting or attempting to collect claims owed, due or asserted to be owed or due to another person or to a public body;
(B) Any person who directly or indirectly furnishes, attempts to furnish, sells or offers to sell forms represented to be a collection system even though the forms direct the debtor to make payment to the creditor and even though the forms may be or are actually used by the creditor in the creditor’s own name;
(C) Any person who in attempting to collect or in collecting the person’s own claim uses a fictitious name or any name other than the person’s own that indicates to the debtor that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect the claim;
(D) Any person in the business of engaging in the solicitation of the right to repossess or in the repossession of collateral security due or asserted to be due to another person; or
(E) Any person who in the collection of claims from another person:
(i) Uses any name other than the name regularly used in the conduct of the business out of which the claim arose; and
(ii) Engages in any action or conduct that tends to convey the impression that a third party has been employed or engaged to collect the claim.
(b) “Collection agency” does not include:
(A) Any individual engaged in soliciting claims for collection, or collecting or attempting to collect claims on behalf of a registrant under ORS 697.005 to 697.095, if the individual is an employee of the registrant;
(B) Any individual collecting or attempting to collect claims for not more than three employers, if all collection efforts are carried on in the name of the employer and the individual is an employee of the employer;
(C) Any person who prepares or mails monthly or periodic statements of accounts due on behalf of another person if all payments are made to that other person and no other collection efforts are made by the person preparing the statements of accounts;
(D) Any attorney-at-law rendering services in the performance of the duties of an attorney-at-law;
(E) Any licensed certified public accountant or public accountant rendering services in the performance of the duties of a licensed certified public accountant or public accountant;
(F) Any bank, mutual savings bank, consumer finance company, trust company, savings and loan association, credit union or debt consolidation agency;
(G) Any real estate licensee or escrow agent licensed under the provisions of ORS chapter 696, as to any collection or billing activity involving a real estate transaction or collection escrow transaction of the licensee or escrow agent;
(H) Any individual regularly employed as a credit person or in a similar capacity by one person, firm or corporation that is not a collection agency as defined in this section;
(I) Any public officer or any person acting under order of any court;
(J) Any person acting as a property manager in collecting or billing for rent, fees, deposits or other sums due landlords of managed units;
(K) Any person while the person is providing billing services. A person is providing billing services for the purposes of this subparagraph if the person engages, directly or indirectly, in the business or pursuit of collection of claims for other persons, whether in the other person’s name or any other name, by any means that:
(i) Is an accounting procedure, preparation of mail billing or any other means intended to accelerate cash flow to the other person’s bank account or to any separate trust account; and
(ii) Does not include any personal contact or contact by telephone with the person from whom the claim is sought to be collected;
(L) Any person while the person is providing factoring services. A person is providing factoring services for the purposes of this subparagraph if the person engages, directly or indirectly, in the business or pursuit of:
(i) Lending or advancing money to commercial clients on the security of merchandise or accounts receivable and then enforcing collection actions or procedures on such accounts; or
(ii) Soliciting or collecting on accounts that have been purchased from commercial clients under an agreement whether or not the agreement:
(I) Allows recourse against the commercial client;
(II) Requires the commercial client to provide any form of guarantee of payment of the purchased account; or
(III) Requires the commercial client to establish or maintain a reserve account in any form;
(M) Any individual employed by another person who operates as a collection agency if the person does not operate as a collection agency independent of that employment;
(N) Any mortgage banker as defined in ORS 59.840;
(O) Any public utility, as defined in ORS 757.005, any telecommunications utility, as defined in ORS 759.005, any people’s utility district, as defined in ORS 261.010, and any cooperative corporation engaged in furnishing electric or communication service to consumers;
(P) Any public body or any individual collecting or attempting to collect claims owed, due or asserted to be owed or due to any public body, if the individual is an employee of the public body; or
(Q) Any person for whom the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services determines by order or by rule that the protection of the public health, safety and welfare does not require registration with the department as a collection agency.
(2) “Collection system” means a scheme intended or calculated to be used to collect claims sent, prepared or delivered by:
(a) A person who in collecting or attempting to collect the person’s own claim uses a fictitious name or any name other than the person’s own that indicates to the debtor that a third person is collecting or attempting to collect the claim; or
(b) A person directly or indirectly engaged in soliciting claims for collection, or collecting or attempting to collect claims owed or due or asserted to be owed or due another person.
(3) “Claim” means any obligation for the payment of money or thing of value arising out of any agreement or contract, express or implied.
(4) “Client” or “customer” means any person authorizing or employing a collection agency to collect a claim.
(5) “Debtor” means any person owing or alleged to owe a claim.
(6) “Debts incurred outside this state” means any action or proceeding that:
(a) Arises out of a promise, made anywhere to the plaintiff or a third party for the plaintiff’s benefit, by the defendant to perform services outside of this state or to pay for services to be performed outside of this state by the plaintiff;
(b) Arises out of services actually performed for the plaintiff by the defendant outside of this state or services actually performed for the defendant by the plaintiff outside of this state, if the performance outside of this state was authorized or ratified by the defendant;
(c) Arises out of a promise, made anywhere to the plaintiff or a third party for the plaintiff’s benefit, by the defendant to deliver or receive outside of this state or to send from outside of this state goods, documents of title or other things of value;
(d) Relates to goods, documents of title or other things of value sent from outside of this state by the defendant to the plaintiff or a third person on the plaintiff’s order or direction;
(e) Relates to goods, documents of title or other things of value actually received outside of this state by the plaintiff from the defendant or by the defendant from the plaintiff, without regard to where delivery to carrier occurred; or
(f) Where jurisdiction at the time the debt was incurred was outside of this state.
(7) “Department” means the Department of Consumer and Business Services.
(8) “Director” means the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services.
(9) “Out-of-state collection agency” means a collection agency located outside of this state whose activities within this state are limited to collecting debts incurred outside of this state from debtors located in this state. As used in this subsection, “collecting debts” means collecting by means of interstate communications, including telephone, mail or facsimile transmission from the collection agency location in another state on behalf of clients located outside of this state.
(10) “Person” includes an individual, firm, partnership, trust, joint venture, association, limited liability company or corporation.
(11) “Public body” means:
(a) The state and any branch, department, agency, board or commission of the state;
(b) Any city, county, district or other political subdivision or municipal or public corporation and any instrumentality thereof; and
(c) Any intergovernmental agency, department, council, joint board of control created under ORS 190.125 or other like entity, which is created under ORS 190.003 to 190.130 and which does not act under the direction and control of any single member government.
(12) “Registered” or “registrant” means any person registered under ORS 697.005 to 697.095 or registered or licensed as a collection agency under the laws of another state.
(13) “Statement of account” means a report setting forth amounts billed, invoices, credits allowed or aged balance due. [1981 c.85 §2; 1987 c.373 §43; 1993 c.744 §20; 1995 c.622 §1; 1999 c.468 §1; 2001 c.917 §5]
Section: 697.005 697.010 697.015 697.020 697.021 697.025 697.030 697.031 697.035 697.038 697.039 697.040 697.041 697.045 697.050 NextLast modified: August 7, 2008