I forwarded both of these methods to a friend of mine who is a law student and has debt. Hopefully he'll try one or the other. For a law student, it should be worthwhile for the experience alone, with or without getting a settlement.
It's like a story that my dad, an accountant, often tells about deliberately getting his own accounting company audited by the IRS. It was the only way to get first hand experience at an audit.
LOL to those talking about ethics when dealing with collection agencies and telemarketers.