State AG Andrew Cuomo Asks Judge To Void 100,000 Faulty Default Judgments

[Purveyor]

Wednesday, July 22nd 2009, 9:51 PM

State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday asked a judge to void 100,000 faulty default judgments overzealous debt collectors used to freeze bank accounts across New York.

The unprecedented move is part of Cuomo’s ongoing investigation into illegal tactics of debt collectors that include repeat phone calls, posing as law enforcement and threatening immigrants with deportation.

In a lawsuit filed in Buffalo, Cuomo sued 35 law firms and two debt collectors to overturn thousands of default judgments, including 24,976 in New York City.

Cuomo is investigating a wave of complaints about companies that intimidate people who’ve already paid their debts or didn’t owe in the first place with harassing phone calls and mailings.

He’s issued subpoenaes to 20 companies seeking documents. Now he’s set to target one of their most powerful weapons - the default judgment.

Collectors get courts to freeze a debtor’s bank accounts through default judgments. In many cases, the victims don’t even know they’ve been targeted until they try to pay bills and don’t have access to their money.

MORE...

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/07/22/2009-07-22_state_ag_andrew_cuomo_asks_judge_to_void_100000_faulty_default_judgments.html

[hobbit709]

1. Friend of mine just got a case dismissed in Houston

This bottom feeder collection agency tried to sue him for nonexistent $14,000 debt. They completely made up the debt, refused to send him proof of the alleged debt, etc. At the court they were still trying to say he owed the money to BOA even though BOA gave him a letter stating that they know nothing about this matter and their records show that he owes them nothing. The judge asked the collectors where their evidence was-after a little hemming and hawing they admitted they had nothing.
The judge was not a hppay camper at this point-evidently these clowns had a habit of filing fraudulent cases. He not only dismissed the case but ordered them to pay my friend's attorney fees.
My friend is now considering suing them for attempted fraud.

[Raskolnik]

2. Your friend should go to an attorney and ask about filing Fair Debt Collection Practices case

Those are generally much simpler than a fraud case under state law, they carry statutory damages, and the defendant has to pay attorneys fees.

[ejpoeta]

4. definitely. FDCPA has all kinds of rules and you can definnitely sue them for violationg your

rights.

[ejpoeta]

3. in 2006 we had a default judgement we didn't know anything about

and our bank account was seized. we had never even heard of this company!! well, bob did a lot of foot work and found out that there was no way these folks were serving people. they were supposedly all the way up here all over wny and then down in long island on the same day!! bob got the judgement thrown out, and had brought our suspicions to an assistant attorney general awhile back. i don't know if they were already looking at these people or what. it was a big surprise to see it on the 6 o'clock news last night. a lot of the names in the story are very familiar to bob.... it's just amazing. and it's good that they did something about it.