Posts tagged as:

lawsuit

Minnesota Needs Debt Buyer Regulation

March 1, 2010

Minnesota Representative Joe Mullery and Senator Ron Latz recently introduced a bill that would prevent debt buyers from filing a lawsuit without the ability to prove they have the right to collect a debt.
Why the need for the rule? Debt buyers and collectors file tens of thousands of lawsuits against Minnesota consumers every year, and [...]

Read the full article →

FDPCA & FCRA Lawsuits On the Rise

September 23, 2009

The number of FDCPA and FCRA lawsuits filed in 2009 is well ahead of both 2008 and 2007. In July 2009, the 5000th suit was filed. In 2008, that benchmark was not hit until the second week of October; in 2007 it took until early December.
So what is behind the surge? Here are my best [...]

Read the full article →

Served By a Debt Collector? What To Do Next

August 4, 2009

Getting served with a lawsuit is one of the more upsetting things that can happen to you. When a process server hands a summons and complaint to you or to someone “of suitable age and discretion” who answers your door, they are dragging you into the legal system.
But really, it is not as bad as [...]

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

Deal With Your Debt: Negotiate a Settlement

May 7, 2009

Once a debt is in default—meaning you stopped paying it—one option is to attempt to negotiate a settlement with the creditor. (You can try this before you go into default, but creditors are rarely willing to play ball until you prove your poverty—and before they rack up some more fees.)
You could just pay the full [...]

Read the full article →

Citibank offers $5,000 loan to defendant in Citibank collection lawsuit

April 7, 2009

Allen Harkleroad is an angry debtor who blogs about his experience dealing with debt collectors. One of his creditors, Citibank, sued him on a defaulted credit card debt. After they started the lawsuit, though, Citibank offered to loan Allen another $5,000.
It is obvious why they need a bailout; the monkeys in charge of consumer lending [...]

Read the full article →

How not to defend a debt collection lawsuit

March 26, 2009

When I worked as a collection attorney, I would see the same erroneous defenses over and over again. Here are some of the most common:
You don’t have a signed contract
Somewhat surprisingly, creditors are not required to produce a signed contract to prevail in court. There are others case theories, such as account stated, that may [...]

Read the full article →

90% of life (and defending debt buyer lawsuits) is just showing up

March 25, 2009

Although skeptics argue that Woody Allen’s famous observation over-simplifies the path to success, consumers sued by debt buyers will benefit from following Woody’s advice.
Of course, a debt buyer is a business that purchases debt from the original creditor and then sues consumers to collect the debts. Because the debt buyer did not originate the debt, [...]

Read the full article →

Do’s and don’ts of dealing with debt collectors

March 24, 2009

There are too many to list, but here are a couple of the most important ones:
Don’t tell a debt collector where you bank or where you work
Debt collectors are always in hot pursuit of bank and employer information because bank and wage garnishments are easy and inexpensive ways to collect a debt. A favorite trick [...]

Read the full article →

NJ car dealership pays for ripping off Kenneth Hammel

January 21, 2009

Back in 2006, 80-year old Kenneth Hammel brought his 2000 Chrysler Town & Country minivan to the Cherry Hill Triplex dealership. The dealership kept Hammel at the dealership for 12 hours while they used high-pressure sales tactics to get him to buy a 2005 Kia Sedona.
When it turned out that the Sedona’s wheelchair lift did [...]

Read the full article →

Monster Cable still a bunch of jerks

July 23, 2008

Predatory litigator Monster Cable recently withdrew a patent infringement lawsuit after attorneys from local firm Winthrop & Weinstine filed a motion to dismiss. Monster’s Cable was suing Minnesota company Denco for producing Monster Deer Block, a flavored salt and mineral lick designed to attract wild deer. And apparently easily confused with Monster’s overpriced electronic cables.
Inside [...]

Read the full article →

When good wood goes bad

July 1, 2008

“A Minnesota lumber company accuses industry titan Sherwin-Williams of peddling defective wood coating. And of being a big jerk about it.” When good wood goes bad | City Pages – The Blotter

Read the full article →

Identity protection ads come back to bite LifeLock CEO

June 11, 2008

Identity protection ads come back to bite LifeLock CEO | BoingBoing

Read the full article →

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.

Read the full article →

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 [...]

Read the full article →

A Monster List of Things Monster Cable Will Soon Sue

May 28, 2008

A Monster List of Things Monster Cable Will Soon Sue | Gizmodo

Read the full article →

Monster Cable is apparently run by douchebags

May 28, 2008

How else could one explain their crusade to sue every other business that uses the word monster anywhere in its name? This includes the Chicago Bears, whose long-time nickname “monsters of the midway” must have been awfully confusing for all those consumers who showed up at Soldier Field looking to by HDMI component cables.
Or in [...]

Read the full article →