by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Élise Thériault

Age: 25

Occupation: Lawyer/debt counsellor

Bio: This enchanting Côte-des-Neiges resident and UdeM law graduate first honed her community service skills counselling debtors at a legal aid clinic servicing residents of the Pointe and Little Burgundy as part of a post-graduate internship program. Now gainfully employed by non-profit consumer protection group Option Consommateurs, should you find yourself overwhelmed by angry creditors threatening all hell because you haven't paid your bills in a while, Élise is the chick you’ll want to see. “I help people draw up a budget and proposal or another option. I just love being able to help people."

Something that causes an overwhelming number of people to get into serious debt: Depression. “I see so many workers who get sick, thinking they’ll get better and go back to work soon, but they don’t start decreasing their spending commensurate with their new situation. And should they not find employment, their depression often gets worse, and they end up with even more debt. You see, when people are depressed like this, they often just don’t have the strength or courage to pursue all the legal and administrative procedures available to help them improve their situation—it all becomes too much.”

Another common way people wind up financially devastated: Via predatory lending practices conducted by unscrupulous financial institutions. “People who get caught in these traps often don’t have much education. But it’s normal people can’t understand their credit card contracts. Even me, as a lawyer, find them difficult to read—they’re purposely made to be hard.”

The type of thing you might find buried in your credit card contract should you have the tenacity to try and understand it: “They’ll offer you a card at a ‘normal’ interest rate of, say, 18 or 19 per cent, but what’s hidden in the fine print is that if you miss one or two payments over the year, that rate goes up another five or six per cent.”

Something every debtor should know about the power of bill collectors: “No matter what they tell you, the only power they have is to call you from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day of the week except Sunday. That’s it. They have very bad practices of telling people that they’re going to go to jail, or that they’re going to come to your house and seize all your goods, but it’s not true.”

Does she foresee a day when the Canadian banking industry is finally legislated to stop raping consumers with outrageous interest rates and user fees? “Yes. It’s already better in many provinces. We also have a new Consumer Protection Act that’s made a few small changes with respect to what collection agencies can do.”

Does she think she might someday tire of actually helping people and move on over to earn the big bucks working corporate law for, say, MBNA Canada? “Oh no, I don’t think so.”

Something else she does: Give legal aid classes to inmates at Bordeaux prison.

Musical preferences: Xavier Caféïne, Dumas, ZeBrick.

Last book read: Nikolski, by Nicolas Dickner.

Words of wisdom: “Be prepared.”

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