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Friday, December 25, 2009

Ind. Courts - "Suits allege unscrupulous debt collection tactics"

This Dec. 13th ILB entry was headed "Debt collectors' 'bully' tactics drawing scorn."

Yesterday, Teresa Auch Schultz of the Gary Post Tribune had this report:

Three more people have filed federal lawsuits alleging unscrupulous practices by debt collectors.

The lawsuits, all filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Hammond, claim that companies in some way violated the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

In one, Serita Bonner, a Lake County resident, claims that American Revenue Corp. gave her new employer a forged court document so the company could garnish her wages. The company had won in 2004 a judgment against Bonner to collect on a debt she owed to The Methodist Hospitals. The company set up a garnishment of her wages with her then-employer Harrah's Casino.

However, she left Harrah's in 2005 and started working for another company, Americall, in 2008. According to the lawsuit, instead of going through the proper procedures to start a new garnishment, American Revenue sent Americall a forged copy of the original garnishment order that listed Americall as Bonner's employer in 2004, even though she didn't work for them until 2008. Bonner filed copies of both garnishment orders with her lawsuit.

Krystina Austin, a Porter County resident, also filed a lawsuit, claiming that FirstSource Financial Solutions added a fee of $270 to her debt for debt collection, even though such a practice is prohibited by state law.

In the third lawsuit, Robert McCord, a Porter County resident, says AFNI, Inc., has continued to bill him even though he declared bankruptcy and had the debt discharged by bankruptcy court.

They follow another lawsuit in which a couple claimed an employee of a debt collector called and harassed them, telling them things such as he would tell their mortgage companies and neighbors about their debt.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 25, 2009 01:18 PM
Posted to Indiana Courts