Elderly woman wins right to sue debt collectors

A U.S. Appeals court recently ruled that an elderly woman from New Jersey will be able to file a lawsuit against her debt collectors. The court ruled that 85-year-old Dorothy Rhue Allen will be able to sue collectors after they charged her $5,800 for missing the last payment on her 30-year mortgage. The Deptford resident took out a loan in 1976 and was unable to make the final payment of $437 because of a hospital stay. The attorney for Allen, Lewis Adler, said the debt collectors had acted inappropriately and gone after his client too harshly, given her advanced age. "She's just a wonderful little old lady that got sick," lawyer Lewis Adler told The Associated Press. "The lenders are sloppy and aggressive, trying to collect every penny." Older Americans have had all sorts of issues when it comes to debt collection. In a recent interview with Fox Business, FBI Special agent Charles Pavelities said that almost 35 percent of fraud victims were over the age of 50.