Recently I have launched a new website that while not technically a legal website I believe it compliments my law firm website. The website is Consumer Warrior and was created with the goal of providing information to people who are dealing with difficult and often very stressful collection efforts and debt collection lawsuits. I am a firm believer that it truly is difficult to replace a competent attorney no matter how good the guide or website. But at the same time with some consumer matters it simply doesn’t make financial [...]
This month marked the release of the new book by Stephanie Kimbro “Limited Scope Legal Services: Unbundling and the Self-Help Client.” Ms. Kimbro is an attorney and author. One of her more recent works, Virtual Law Office: How to Deliver Legal Services Online was a great inspiration to me as I opened my own law practice and began offering legal services through the web. A while back Stephanie contacted me about my limited scope services practice and asked me if I would be willing to answer a few questions for [...]
If you have been sued by a debt buyer like Midland Funding, LVNV, LLC, Portfolio Recovery or any of other companies out there your initial reaction is probably that you want this to go away and go away now. Before making any decision take some time to evaluate your options. If you live in Arizona you have 20 days from the day you received the complaint and summons before you have to file a response with the court. Take that time to make a sound decision. So what options do you [...]
We sat there in my office, large stack of bills on one side of the table and a half dozen judgments on the other side. The credit card bills had not been paid in some time and the judgments were a few months old. After some preliminary discussion on the debts and bankruptcy process the person sitting across from me asked if I thought bankruptcy was a good option. They expressed how much they didn’t want to file for bankruptcy and hoped to deal with their debt problem another way. [...]
A few days ago the attorney general for West Virginia filed suit against Midland Funding, LLC, one of the largest debt buyers in the country. In the complaint against Midland Funding the attorney general claimed the Midland was filing lawsuits against consumers with false and unreliable mass-produced affidavits. These affidavits were often the only form of “proof” that the debt was owed by the person who was being sued. Here in Arizona I meet and talk with people on a daily basis who have been sued by Midland Funding or [...]
I meet with clients on a regular basis that have been sued by a debt buying company on an old credit card debt. If you have had the misfortune of being sued, you know that the process server provides you with a copy of the Complaint and Summons. In Arizona, you have 20 days from the day you are served with the Complaint and Summons to submit a written response to the court. The written response is called the “Answer”. How you answer a lawsuit can have lasting implications in your collection lawsuit. [...]
A lot of what I do each day here in the Phoenix valley is help families file for bankruptcy. As part of that process I go through my client’s bills and pull their credit in effort to get as many of their debts as possible. In doing so I often see judgments that have been entered against my clients by the various debt buying companies that operate in Arizona – typically Midland Funding, LVNV Funding, or Portfolio Recovery. These judgments are typically entered because my clients did not bother to [...]
The other day I was scheduled to attend a continuing education conference with some of the local Arizona bankruptcy trustees. I thought I had given myself plenty of time. I arrived at the parking garage, walked inside, and immediately realized that I was in the wrong building. So I got back in my car and tried to head to the right building. I ran into a problem. The parking garage only took cash and I only had my debit card. I told the attendant that I had only been parking [...]
In January the State Senate in California passed legislation aimed at debt buyers like Midland Funding, LVNV Funding, and Portfolio Recovery who sue people over debts without adequate documentation to prove that they own the debt or that they are even suing the right person. This new legislation would prohibit debt buyers from obtaining a judgment in a debt collection lawsuit unless the debt buyer can prove that they own the debt, what the balance is, the date of default or last payment, the identity of the owners, and the [...]
In previous articles I have gone over the litigation strategy of debt buying companies like Midland Funding, LVNV, LLC, and Portfolio Recovery. Despite the fact that they have filed a lawsuit against you, they really don’t want to fight you. Their hope is that you will do nothing to defend yourself and that they will get a default judgment against you. So what if you put up a fight? Sometimes they will simply seek to dismiss your case. You receive the Motion to Dismiss and you are thinking that you [...]
