Posts tagged as:

court

The New Debtors’ Prison

October 21, 2009

Debtors’ prison was supposedly eliminated in the United States in the 19th century, but in the 21st, people are still being arrested and tossed into jail for debts. It just takes an extra step these days.
This morning, I sat in court and watched a debt collector get six bench warrants for debts under $1,000. I [...]

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Kucinich right on arbitration, wrong on courts

July 30, 2009

Dennis Kucinich and his House Domestic Policy Subcommittee just released a report on arbitration abuse in the National Arbitration Forum (PDF). In the report, the subcommittee stated that “[c]onsumer arbitration lacks the safeguards that have been designed into our judicial system by our Constitution, by state and federal statutes, and by centuries of judicial decisions” [...]

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Debt collector to pay $32,000 under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

July 14, 2009

Minnesota debt buyer and collector Debt Equities, LLC, must pay nearly $32,000 to resolve a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuit in Minnesota. Earlier this year, Debt Equities offered judgment for $15,000 (PDF). Just today, Magistrate Judge Keyes ordered Debt Equities to pay an additional $16,700.42 as attorney fees and costs (PDF).
Judge Keyes also said [...]

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Debtors’ prison returns to Florida

April 16, 2009

I understand the need for courts to enforce their orders, but when hard times mean that a state like Florida is throwing thousands of people into jail just for failing to pay fines of a couple hundred dollars, something ain’t right.
The problem, of course, is that state courts are strapped for cash along with everyone [...]

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Bankruptcy filings go way up in February

March 3, 2009

Unsurprisingly, since many creditors are simply chucking their receivables into collections in bulk, consumers are finally starting to file bankruptcy en masse. February filings are up 22% from January, reflecting an average of 5,433 filings every day. There is probably no better indication of how badly Americans are hurting than the number of Americans who [...]

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Chicago courts clogged with collection claims

June 11, 2008

Chicago joins California and Minnesota in the news, as its civil courts try to deal with moving more than 119,000 debt collection lawsuits through the system.

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National Arbitration Forum thinks courts should just rubber stamp arbitration awards

May 29, 2008

National Arbitration Forum basically offers a rubber stamp to debt collectors already, and they argue that courts should turn their awards into court judgments without looking too closely.
Are courts unreasonably tossing out arbitration awards? Nope. NAF is just advocating for its clients, the debt collectors, who have no proof of the debts on which they [...]

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Representing yourself in court: staying on point

March 23, 2008

Representing yourself in court–appearing pro se–is one of the more difficult things to do, although many people do not seem to realize it. Judges and attorneys dread the pro se party, however. As I have said before, the court system is a bit like visiting a foreign country. If you don’t speak the language, nobody [...]

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The U.S. Supreme Court likes business

March 21, 2008

The U.S. Supreme Court likes business. So much so that it decided 22 of 30 business cases last term unanimously in favor of business, and “Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and David Souter each went out of his or her way to question the use of lawsuits to challenge corporate wrongdoing . . . .” [...]

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