TDF Debt Advisory Law was started with a mission to help people get debt-free faster and better than was available before.

Our team of lawyers, paralegals and staff work tirelessly on your behalf to: (i) stop collection calls; (ii) negotiate with creditors; and (iii) reduce and settle your debt so that you can back to living your life, debt-free on your own terms and without having to go into bankruptcy.

We started TDF because, until now, most other debt relief options didn’t advocate for you exclusively.

Non-profit credit counselling agencies, trustees in bankruptcy and debt settlement companies all had agendas and duties that didn’t always result in you getting out of debt as quickly and as affordably as possible.

So we decided to change that.

Non-profit Credit Counsellors act like a kind, friendly face under a not-for- profit banner. However, about 70% of their income comes from the credit card companies that you owe money to. In fact, the boards of directors of many non-profit credit counselling services have senior members of creditors on them.

It’s a great marriage for the credit card companies, but offers little relief to Canadians.

If you owed $20,000, credit counselling services might be able to help you negotiate a lower interest rate, but you would still be required to pay back the full amount over 5 years and the repayment plan would registered to your credit report for that time, the same way a bankruptcy or consumer proposal is.

Trustees are licensed in Canada under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. They offer two services: Bankruptcy and consumer proposals.

In both cases, the trustee is a court appointed agent to your creditors, so even though you pay for the service, trustees have a duty to follow the laws to get your creditors as much money back as possible.

Your assets (home, car, cash, etc) can all be sold to pay off your debts.

Worse yet, typically a trustee is paid by taking 20% of every consumer proposal payment. This creates a conflict of interest in that there is no motivation to save you more money, or advocate for you, since they get paid based on what you pay. In fact at a 20% commission, they get paid more, if they can get more money back to your creditors.

Debt Settlement Companies were the consumer’s advocate. It saved Canadians a significant amount of money. In fact, 60% – 70% reductions in balances owed was commonplace and people could get debt free much quicker, often in 3 years or less.

There was also considerably more flexibility since settlements are informal and credit card companies couldn’t sit on a board controlling these boutique companies.

Unfortunately a some Debt Settlement Companies overpromised, under-delivered, and some people were let down and did not get the results they expected.

The credit card companies, bankruptcy trustees and non-profit credit counsellors all took advantage of this and lobbied the government to change the law to make it impossible for debt settlement companies in Canada to operate.   Effective July 1, 2015, new legislation under the Collection & Debt Settlement Services Act effectively put all debt settlement companies out of business by reducing and delaying their ability to earn revenue considerably.

This is where we came in. As a law firm, we held to the highest ethical standard in advocating on behalf of our clients. It is for this reason that we are exempt from the provincial legislation that shut down many of the debt settlement companies.

We are advocates by profession and by nature. We can only lawfully act for the person paying for their services, so there is no conflict of interests like there could be with trustees and not-for profit credit counsellors.

When you hire a law firm, we can only work for you.

We bring considerable knowledge, experience and bargaining power to the table. We are able to legally stop collection calls and have experience with the court process should a creditor ever try to sue you.

Our law firm is the first group of legal professionals in Canada to offer the debt negotiation approach to Canadians. To learn more about how we may be able to help you, click the link below and ask us for a free consultation over the phone.