I got the word a few days ago that gigantic debt collection law firm Mann Bracken was going under. Atlanta consumer lawyer Tim Cook says Mann Bracken’s lawyers are out of work and the phones are instructing callers to contact their creditors. Could it be?
It could. Mann Bracken has been under fire in Georgia, and its parent company, Axiant, took a big hit when the Minnesota Attorney General forced the National Arbitration Forum to stop handling consumer arbitrations. That is a lot of weight to carry, and I am not surprised to find out that Mann Bracken is the next casualty of the Axiant love triangle.
From the comments, here is my best advice if you had a debt with Mann Bracken:
Mann Bracken is a debt collection law firm. As far as I know, Mann Bracken does not purchase debts, it just collects debts that belong to its clients.
If Mann Bracken goes bankrupt, its clients do not lose the right to collect their debts, they just have to find another debt collector to do it.
If you had a debt with Mann Bracken, you should probably start by contacting the creditor. If you had reached a settlement with Mann Bracken, find out whether the creditor intends to honor that settlement. (Note: Making payments is not necessarily the same thing as settling your debt. A creditor must credit your account for any payments you make, regardless whether you have reached some kind of settlement.)
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I am asking for evidence because I know Mann Bracken does not buy debts. I have been involved with a number of lawsuits brought by Mann Bracken, and I have never seen anything to indicate that they buy debts. What I have seen is chains of assignment, bills of sale, and statements showing who does own the debts (or at least who thinks it owns them). It has never been Wolpoff or Mann Bracken.
I have, however, seen a lot of uninformed people posting rumors online. I have never seen any evidence supporting those rumors, only more rumors.
I deleted your legal question because posting personal legal questions to a public website is a bad idea. Contact an attorney in your state.
I too was dealing with Mann Bracken over the last couple of years. I had developed a relationship with one of their attorneys who was actually pretty nice and did help me to make a payment arrangement that was comfortable for me. When I got laid off my job, much like many other people, I explained the situation and she altered the payment arrangement to lower my payments to a new level I could handle under the new circumstances. Every time we made a change I asked her to send me a ltter to that effect, which she did. I wasn’t able to make payment for February and March but did want to catch up in April and upon calling the number I had for the attorney who handled my accounts it says there are circuit difficulties.
Now Im not sure whether or not I should send a payment, sometimes I mailed them in their self addressed envelopes or I made it through their website which was free.
After reading your comments on here Im wondering if the right thing to do is just wait for a letter or a phone call telling me who the new collecton agency will be. One of the accounts I had with them is almost paid off and another one has a larger balance. What’s your advice?
Mann Bracken collected too much money. They took money from two different sources which created an overpayment. I have been trying to resolve and now no one answers the phone. Is there a way to get my overpayment returned?
I paid Mann Bracken in 2006 for a debt. In 2010 after getting a new job, in the background check it came up there was a judgment against me in civil court. I couldn’t believe it. I had paid this debt in 2006 and have all the documents and cleared bank information. When I tried to send a certified package to them it was returned to me 4/29/2010 saying it was “Not Deliverable”. I have lost a good paying job and been unable to secure loans because of something on my credit report that shouldn’t be there. I wish there was a class action suit somewhere I could join. They have destroyed people’s lives.
My husband has had a wage garnishment on him for debt collection for Capital One through Wolpoff & Abramson then thru Mann Bracken. His employer told him that MB had not cashed any checks since December or January. When my husband called the Clerk of the Court here, he was told that the judgement was being dismissed b/c MB was out of business. We are waiting for the Dismissal Ruling documentation. So 1) Does his employer have to stop payment on all the checks from my husband’s wages? 2) Does the employer reimburse my husband for all those payments? 3) If a debt cannot be collected on after three years of no activity, do we wait 3 years from the time of the last collected payment and then consider it no longer collectable? Thank you.
So I have been making payments to MB including in December. I have not had any trouble with it at all. In fact I was trying to call to find out what my remaining balance was. That is when I found out all this information. I’m not sure now if my payments are going to the right place and if I should keep sending them. This Sucks!
Mann Bracken has been in a Receivership Proceeding administered by the Circuit Court for Montgomery County, Maryland. I am counsel to the Receiver. The Receiver continues to receive payments sent to Mann Bracken by credit card holders, title companies on judgment and garnishment checks. She administers the funds pursuant to Court Order and, where applicable, agreements with the credit card companies. The Receiver uses Mann Bracken’s electronic files to determine which credit card company is involved and sends copies of each payment to the credit card issuer and ultimately the funds. You may contact Ms. Rose at: Cheryl Rose, Receiver Cheryl E. Rose, Receiver of Mann Bracken, LLC, 12154 Darnestown Road, Box 623, Gaithersburg, MD 20878.
Although this information appears to be accurate, I would question the wisdom of paying the receiver for an out-of-business debt collection law firm that represented clients who couldn’t prove they owned the debts they were trying to collect. Call a consumer rights attorney before you do this.
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