If you’ve read any of our blogs dealing with debt collectors, you probably already know that anything we have to say about them…well, let’s just say we won’t be sending them friend requests on Facebook. Hell, if you’ve ever dealt with any of them in the past, you’re probably not their biggest fans either. They’ll flood your email and voicemail with demanding, sometimes outright threatening, messages saying whatever they can to get you to pay up, making finding debt relief seem like an impossibility.
Now it seems the state of New York has had enough of these collectors and their prick-ish ways and has decided to do something about it. The state’s attorney general is now suing 35 different law firms and 2 debt collectors, stating they hired a company called American Legal Process that did not serve thousands of consumers with legal papers. They are now seeking to have as many as 100,000 judgments overturned – most of which went completely unnoticed by those on whom they were placed until they found their wages garnished or their bank accounts frozen.
How do you plead?
Anyone that’s dealt with debt collectors on their own knows how abusive they can be, and how ridiculous their claims can get, no matter how unsubstantiated they really are. This is exactly what the attorney’s office is finding now when they demand for proof that a debt is even owed in the first place. Many collection companies, when asked to present proof of the debt, quickly back down from any threat of legal action against a consumer.
Not failing to notice these red flags popping up in all these cases, the attorneys dug deeper and found that, of 238 in which a proof of debt was requested, collection agencies failed to back up their claims nearly 95% of the time.
You read that right: 95% of the cases that involved a collection agency demanding payment of a debt from a consumer failed to provide proof that there was a debt in the first place. But wait, it gets even better.
The other 5% that could provide documentation on the debt? According to the state attorney’s office, “rather than showing that the debt was owed, its own documentation often proved the opposite.” How pathetic is that? How completely incompetent are these people?
The attorney’s went on to state that, “the cases in the study bear a common thread: in many instances debt buyers sued consumers when they clearly had no legitimate claims. Debt buyers sued in cases of identity theft and mistaken identity, when their records did not reflect payments by the defendant, and when the debt was beyond the statute of limitations.”
Now, if you’re looking for someone to blame for this…
Then, believe it or not, you may as well point the finger right back on yourself. This kind of gross incompetence is only made possible because the people who were being sued and taken to court for these “debts” never fought back. They just assumed the debt was accurate and agreed to whatever payment plan the collectors envisioned to get them off the phone. According to a recent study by the Legal Aid Society, debt collectors won nearly 95% of the 450,000
View the Original article
