{"data":{"id":"us-tx/tex.-finance-code-392.301","jurisdiction":"us-tx","citation":"Tex. Finance Code § 392.301","heading":"THREATS OR COERCION.","body":"(a) In debt collection, a debt collector may not use threats, coercion, or attempts to coerce that employ any of the following practices:\n(1) using or threatening to use violence or other criminal means to cause harm to a person or property of a person;\n(2) accusing falsely or threatening to accuse falsely a person of fraud or any other crime;\n(3) representing or threatening to represent to any person other than the consumer that a consumer is wilfully refusing to pay a nondisputed consumer debt when the debt is in dispute and the consumer has notified in writing the debt collector of the dispute;\n(4) threatening to sell or assign to another the obligation of the consumer and falsely representing that the result of the sale or assignment would be that the consumer would lose a defense to the consumer debt or would be subject to illegal collection attempts;\n(5) threatening that the debtor will be arrested for nonpayment of a consumer debt without proper court proceedings;\n(6) threatening to file a charge, complaint, or criminal action against a debtor when the debtor has not violated a criminal law;\n(7) threatening that nonpayment of a consumer debt will result in the seizure, repossession, or sale of the person's property without proper court proceedings; or\n(8) threatening to take an action prohibited by law.\n(b) Subsection (a) does not prevent a debt collector from:\n(1) informing a debtor that the debtor may be arrested after proper court proceedings if the debtor has violated a criminal law of this state;\n(2) threatening to institute civil lawsuits or other judicial proceedings to collect a consumer debt; or\n(3) exercising or threatening to exercise a statutory or contractual right of seizure, repossession, or sale that does not require court proceedings.\nActs 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1008, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.","path":["FINANCE CODE","TITLE 5. PROTECTION OF CONSUMERS OF FINANCIAL SERVICES","CHAPTER 392. DEBT COLLECTION","SUBCHAPTER D. PROHIBITED DEBT COLLECTION METHODS"],"source_url":"https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/FI/htm/FI.392.htm#392.301","current_through":"89th 2nd Called Legislative Session, 2025","vintage":"","retrieved_at":"2026-08-27T01:47:13Z","sha256":"cb68842fa33b9a2c41a3b41cadd0ae77c9c290e3d0a46224eb80413dbc9ddfca","source_id":"us-tx","stale":false,"prev":"us-tx/tex.-finance-code-392.202","next":"us-tx/tex.-finance-code-392.302"},"notice":"GroundRules: Original legal text. Not legal advice."}