Ron Burdge has a great story that illustrates why punitive damages are necessary when car dealers commit fraud against consumers. Simply giving the stolen money, if you will, back doesn't change the bad conduct.
Most of our consumer cases (Fair Credit Reporting Act and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) are filed in Federal court (click here to see a listing of some of them) and part of being in Federal court is the practice of mediating cases.
We recently wrote in our companion blog Birmingham Injury Blog a post about mediation that you may find helpful to you in understanding your options in a lawsuit.
Please contact us if you have any questions about this matter.
While most consumer cases do not go to trial, you and your consumer lawyer need to be prepared to try your consumer case. At our companion blog - Birmingham Injury Blog - we have a section devoted to Trial Tips that we hope will be helpful to you. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions or comments about this - feel free to do so by clicking here.
We were recently made aware of this interesting blog post at bankaholic.com regarding 5 little known fees on credit cards. Please read the entire post but here are the five:
1. Low APR Cards May Carry Annual Fees;
2. Fees for Extra Services;
3. You May Be Charged Nominal Amount Even if You Pay in Full
4. Balance Transfers Have Fees; and
5. Low APRs Only for a Limited Time.
We all want to get the best credit cards (if we have to use them) and these are some fees that most of us are not aware of. Educate yourself so you can protect yourself.
Hundreds of Alabama consumers are sued in small claims courts and district courts in Jefferson, Shelby, Tuscaloosa, St. Clair and other counties by debt buyers. Our client was sued by LVNV and our client won his case - the judge ruled our client did not owe LVNV any money which is what our client has maintained all along.
Instead of accepting the defeat with grace and correcting our client's credit report by deleting the false information on there - that he owes LVNV money - LVNV told the credit reporting agencies that our client still owes the money. Despite what the judge said. And, to add insult to injury, LVNV then sent the account out to be collected by the collection agency Allied Interstate. Therefore, our client sued LVNV and Allied Interstate for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Alabama state law.
This is a growing problem - debt buyers lose the collection case as more and more Alabama consumers are understanding that the debt buyers must prove they own the debt (and consumers are putting this in their answers to the complaints) and the result is debt buyers are losing collection cases. But then the debt buyers send the accounts out to be collected as if the consumer owed the money - completely ignoring what our state court judges have said.
To protect yourself, when sued by a debt buyer defend the case. Hire a lawyer or handle it yourself if you feel comfortable. Then after you win pull your credit reports, review them, then dispute any false information, and finally sue if the false information is not corrected. Please feel free to contact us if you live in Alabama and have questions about your credit reports.
We recently sued CACH, LLC (a debt buyer), Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union for false credit reporting in violation of the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), and state law. This false credit reporting was done after a judge ruled that our client did not owe CACH any money on the alleged debt that CACH sued our client on. Pentagroup Financial was also sued as this debt collector started collection activities against our client who does not owe CACH any money.
We have previously blogged about how debt buyers and consumer reporting agencies (CRAs) refuse to delete accounts after an Alabama state court judge has ruled that our consumer does not owe the debt buyer. The debt buyer sues our client and loses. Our client disputes in writing with the CRAs. Pretty simple, right? Apparently not so simple. In this case CACH out of Colorado and Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union verified (kept) the false account with a balance on our client's credit reports.
CACH also sent the account out to Pentagroup to start collecting against our client for this same debt.
This seems to be a widespread problem in Alabama among debt buyers - when they lose they think they can ignore our state court judges. Of course, when they win the collection cases (as most consumers sued don't defend the case) they are big believers in the power of the state court judgments.... Ironic, isn't it?
If you are sued and win, then you may also face this problem of having false information on your credit reports or dealing with collection agencies hounding you for money after a judge said you don't owe it. Regarding the problem of credit reporting errors, The solution is to pull your credit reports, review them, then dispute any false information, and finally sue if the false information is not corrected. Please feel free to contact us if you live in Alabama and have questions about your credit reports or any collection activities you are facing.
Our friends at the Oregon Debt Law Blog have a very nice series on what constitutes harassment under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) that we recommend you read.
Right now there are four parts - you can go to any of the parts as follows:
1. General Overview of Harassment
2. Violence or Criminal Actions
3. Obscene or Profane Language
4. No Lists of Debtors
This is an excellent blog that discusses these types of issues and you should check it out.
If you live in Alabama and are facing any type of harassing conduct by debt collectors, contact us as we sue abusive debt collectors.
We have repeatedly sued AFNI, a national collection agency, for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and the Fair Credit Reporting Act. AFNI's response has always been to deny its wrongful conduct and to say any "mistakes" were isolated incidents. This week the Attorney General of Minnesota had to file suit against AFNI.
Here is a quote from the press release:
Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson today filed a lawsuit in Hennepin County District Court against AFNI, Inc., an Illinois debt collection agency, for attempting to collect debts from Minnesota citizens who stated they did not actually owe the debts and for failing to substantiate debt that consumers stated they did not owe.
The lawsuit alleges that AFNI used unfair collection techniques to attempt to collect debts that Minnesota consumers stated they did not believe they owe, and that AFNI did not adequately verify the validity of debts to ensure it was collecting the debt from the right people. As a result, AFNI repeatedly contacted Minnesota consumers in an attempt to collect debts, some up to ten years old, that in some cases were not actually owed by the citizens.
“In this troubled economy, many people are struggling to pay their bills. Debt collectors are entitled to pursue payment of legitimate debts, but they must do so fairly and in compliance with the law,” Swanson said.
The lawsuit alleges that AFNI continued collection efforts, rather than verify the legitimacy of the debt, after citizens informed AFNI that it was attempting to collect the debt from the wrong person. In response to AFNI’s requests, Minnesota consumers sometimes provided private information, including social security numbers and police reports of identity theft, to prove that AFNI was collecting the debt from the wrong person, but that even after being provided with this requested information, AFNI sometimes continued its collection efforts.
AFNI also sometimes reported invalid “debts” to credit bureaus without verifying that the debts were actually owed by the citizen and did not take the action necessary to remove the debts from consumers’ credit reports.
Congratulations for this strong stance in favor of consumers by the Attorney General Lori Swanson.
If you are dealing with this debt collector, be careful and document everything. If you live in Alabama and would like to discuss your options and whether AFNI or any other debt collector has violated federal or state law, please contact us.
We will be interviewed by Denise Richardson today at 1 pm EST/12 pm CST. The topics will include abusive debt collectors, being sued by debt buyers, false credit reporting by collectors, etc.
It is our understanding you can ask questions by phone or email.
We hope this is helpful and please feel free to submit questions....
See you 6 hours or so....
Update - here is the link to the show
It was a lot of fun to do this. Hope you enjoy it.
We filed a case in Jefferson County, Alabama, against Verizon and Equifax for false credit reporting and the complaint is on our website. Our client paid a disputed charge and was told, in writing, by Verizon that the Verizon account or trade-line would be removed from all of his credit reports (this would include Equifax, Experian, and Trans Union).
When it was not removed, our client wrote to Verizon and called Verizon to try and get them to honor the deal Verizon made when he paid off the disputed charges. After several promises by Verizon and after disputing the account with Equifax and getting no help, our client was forced to file suit alleging violations of Alabama state law and the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
You may recall this is the second recent suit against Verizon that we have filed.
Many Alabama consumers face false credit reporting and this is a problem that can have very harmful effects on your job, mortgage rates, credit card rates, etc. The solution is to pull your credit reports, review them, then dispute any false information, and finally sue if the false information is not corrected. Please feel free to contact us if you live in Alabama and have questions about your credit reports.
An Alabama consumer has recently sued the debt buyer LHR after LHR sued the consumer. The consumer denied owing the debt buyer LHR any money and the judge agreed, ruling in favor of the consumer. This should have ended the matter but to make sure the consumer disputed with the credit reporting agencies that the account should not be on the credit reports since the consumer won the collection case. Shockingly, LHR told the credit reporting agencies to keep it on the reports and Equifax and Trans Union did so.
We have previously blogged about how debt buyers who sue Alabama consumers must prove they own the debt and how they seem unwilling or unable to do so. We have also discussed disputing the collection accounts after you win your collection case. As always, we recommend you to pull your credit reports, review them, then dispute any false information, and finally sue if the false information is not corrected. Please feel free to contact us if you live in Alabama and have questions about your credit reports or being sued by a debt buyer.
The USA Today recently ran a story on how banks are cutting credit card limits which has the effect of increasing the percentage of credit used as compared to the total available credit and this lowers the FICO score. Here is an example from the article:
Let's say a cardholder has a credit limit of $10,000 and a balance on the card of $4,000. The card company worries that large balance may increase the prospects for default, so it lowers the credit line to $5,000.But in doing that, it completely changes what is known as the credit utilization rate, raising it from 40% to 80%. That is then factored into the calculation of one's so-called FICO credit score, which measures creditworthiness, according to Craig Watts, a spokesman for FICO-creator Fair Isaac Corp.
It appears there is nothing illegal about this but you do need to be aware of this possibility and do your best to lower or eliminate credit card debt to protect your FICO score. Of course, one thing that will damage your FICO score is false information on your credit reports. The solution is to pull your credit reports, review them, then dispute any false information, and finally sue if the false information is not corrected. Please feel free to contact us if you live in Alabama and have questions about your credit reports.
We have blogged about the dangers of debt collectors contacting third parties (neighbors, family, co-workers, etc) to collect debts and we recently filed suit against Tabula Rasa and the debt buyer Cavalry Portfolio for this type of misconduct. Despite what most debt collectors believe and how they act, debt collectors CANNOT contact third parties to collect debts. They can only contact co-workers or neighbors or other third parties to obtain location information - address, phone number, etc - but cannot use third parties to put pressure of any type on Alabama consumers who allegedly owe debts.
If your friend, or family member, or co-worker tells you that they are getting calls from debt collectors that are looking for you, carefully write down what you are told and get dates, times, phone numbers, etc. This will help you to document what has happened. Feel free to contact us if you live in Alabama and are dealing with illegal third party contacts by debt collectors.
An Alabama consumer recently filed suit against Citibank and Compass Bank related to their false reporting of accounts which had been discharged in bankruptcy last year. Citibank and Compass Bank received notice of a bankruptcy and instead of following the law and properly updating the accounts to show that the accounts were discharged in bankruptcy and had a zero balance, they continued to report a current balance of over $9000 for each of the accounts.
We have previously blogged about errors in post-bankruptcy discharge reporting. In other words, oftentimes when you receive a discharge, the creditors refuse to follow the law and instead will either leave a balance (known as “Parking”) or will update the account but refuse to tell the credit reporting agencies (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) that the account has been discharged and should have a zero balance.
As we often point out, we suggest that everyone should check their credit reports, review them for errors, and dispute them if errors are present. There are situations where it is appropriate to sue before a dispute when it is apparent that the furnisher/creditor has put false information on your report. If you have any questions about any of your discharged accounts and how they should be reporting after bankruptcy, or credit report errors in general, please do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.
An Alabama consumer has recently sued the debt buyer and debt collector Arrow Financial Services, LLC for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and state law including fraud. This case illustrates the danger when Alabama consumers settle with debt buyers who have sued them - it can be a wise move but this does graphically show the pain that these debt buyers can inflict on you.
Arrow sued our client and then told her if she paid half of the debt Arrow would remove the account (tradeline) from her credit report and would dismiss the case. She upheld her end of the agreement but Arrow requested and received a default judgment against her and has kept the account on her credit reports. Arrow has also pulled her credit reports, which we believe it has no right to do unless it is collecting (and there is nothing to collect - this debt was settled), and has seen the judgment showing up on her credit reports.
We have previously talked about how unfair actions of debt collectors violate the FDCPA. These actions certainly seem unfair to us. We have also seen how untrue statements violate the FDCPA - these statements appear to us to be false and if so they violate Alabama state law prohibiting misrepresentations (lying) and suppressions (hiding the truth).
Remember, if you are dealing with a debt collector, be careful. Guard yourself. Check your credit reports at least once a year. Fortunately when our client realized she had been tricked, she took action. You should do the same - protect yourself but then take action if you have been wronged.
If you are sued by a debt buyer or facing any type of harassing conduct from debt collectors, feel free to contact us as we sue abusive debt collectors and debt buyers.
In a recent post on her blog, Denise Richardson references a critical question in foreclosures - does the supposed lender actually own your home? This reminds us of the debt buyer lawsuits against Alabama consumers - the debt buyers cannot or will not prove they own the debt. When challenged, they typically give up.
If you are facing a wrongful foreclosure, feel free to contact us and we will help you understand your options.
This post by the California Debt Blog is fascinating - it involves Allstate, a collection agency, and an innocent consumer. The basic facts:
I have a client who sold a car. (I am not naming her, but she has given me permission to write about this.) A couple of days after the sale of the car, the new owner was in a car accident. He, of course, had no insurance and she had removed the car from her insurance, just as I recommend. Allstate insured the other party involved in the collision.Allstate sent her a letter demanding payment after pulling up state DMV [Department of Motor Vehicles] records. Because of the short time frame between the sale and the collision, DMV still showed her as the owner. She provided the insurance adjuster with a copy of the DMV Transfer of Title that showed she had sold the car. The adjuster did not care and sent