Summary
The school district should send a demand letter for payment before involving an attorney under K.S.A. 60-2610. This letter must provide at least 14 days for payment before escalating to legal action. If the school did not send such a letter, their process might not comply with the statute. The attorneys involvement without the schools prior demand could be procedurally incorrect. Consulting a local attorney for specific advice on handling this situation is recommended.Full Conversation
The school district claims a $* check bounced in August *. In Sept *, I got a letter from an attorney acting as a debt collector telling me about this issue. I then got a letter from the attorney stating to avoid a lawsuit i need to pay. Does the school need to send a demand for payment or the attorney? K.S.A. *-*
Hey ****! Here’s some info on K.S.A. *-*:
- Under K.S.A. *-*, the holder of the check (in this case, the school) must send a demand for payment.
- The demand must be sent by mail and provide at least 14 days for you to make the payment before escalating to legal action.
Has the school sent any demand letter directly to you before the attorney got involved?
no they havent. the attorney is acting as both attorney and debt collector
Case Rating: *
Hey ****, it sounds like the school should have sent a demand letter before the attorney got involved. Here’s the relevant info:
- Under K.S.A. *-*, the holder of the check must send a demand for payment.
- The demand letter must provide you at least 14 days to pay before escalating.
Would you like more detailed information or assistance?
this is some of their response: When a check is bounced, the District’s bank automatically notifies my office. The bank also notifies the drawer (you in this case) the check has been determined as insufficient funds. No person at the school district notifies my office the check has bounced. The employees of the school district are not supposed to take payments for an insufficient funds check, Newman, Hesse and Associates have been retained to handle the matter. We send out two letters asking for payment for the balance of the check and the insufficient funds charge prior to filing suit for an insufficient funds check.
Case Rating: *
Hey ****! It seems like the attorney's involvement might not comply with K.S.A. *-* as the school district should have sent a demand letter first. If you need further assistance or detailed advice, it might be beneficial to consult with a local lawyer who can better guide you through this.
Would you like more specific information or assistance on how to handle this situation?
Occasionally, accounting issues come when an employee of the school district takes payment from the individual that writes the ISF check. My office is not notified that payment has been taken for the ISF check. In this case, my law firm got the ISF check from the bank; a 30 day letter asking you to pay us for the check and service fee was mailed to you: a *-day letter asking you to make the check good and pay the service fee was mailed to you; to our knowledge no payment to cover the ISF check has been made. Stated another way, any payments by you made to Buckner Elementary have not been given to my firm.
Case Rating: *
Hey ****! It sounds like there might be some procedural issues with how the school and the attorney have handled your insufficient funds check. Here’s a summary of K.S.A. *-*:
- The holder of the check (the school) must send a demand for payment.
- The demand must give you at least 14 days to pay before any legal action is taken.
Would you like to consult with a local lawyer to get more specific advice on how to handle this situation?