Sec. 392.301.  THREATS OR COERCION.  (a)  In debt collection, a debt collector may not use threats, coercion, or attempts to coerce that employ any of the following practices:
(1)  using or threatening to use violence or other criminal means to cause harm to a person or property of a person;
(2)  accusing falsely or threatening to accuse falsely a person of fraud or any other crime;
(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;
(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;
(5)  threatening that the debtor will be arrested for nonpayment of a consumer debt without proper court proceedings;
(6)  threatening to file a charge, complaint, or criminal action against a debtor when the debtor has not violated a criminal law;
(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
(8)  threatening to take an action prohibited by law.
(b)  Subsection (a) does not prevent a debt collector from:
(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;
(2)  threatening to institute civil lawsuits or other judicial proceedings to collect a consumer debt;  or
(3)  exercising or threatening to exercise a statutory or contractual right of seizure, repossession, or sale that does not require court proceedings.
Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1008, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.