NY Attorney General Cuomo Sues to Vacate 100,000 Debt Collection Judgments

The AG claims that the defendants were never served, and so defaulted, whereupon money was seized from bank accounts and wages garnished.  The Times report is here.  The complaint lists  35 lawyers and law firms as defendants. The amount collected is said to exceed $500 million.

Comments

[Antoine]

Wow. I suppose the AG thought the violations for NY law were sufficient. But do you think he should have pled a due process claim? See, e.g., Peralta v. Heights Medical Center, 485 U.S. 80 (1988).

[Jennifer]

Due process doesn't always work.

In 2004, I received a deduction from my paycheck of 25% with no explanation. I called our Human Resource department and learned it was a wage garnishment. I could not afford a lawyer and represented myself looking to have thegarnishment overturned under due process. I brought with me evidence containing police reports, identity theft documents as there was a computer breach at work resulting in a number of employees becoming identity theft victims at the time the debt was incurred. I never received a call or letter from a collection firm, nor had the trade line ever been listed on my credit report until the garnishment.

The judge refused to look at any of my documentation. She told me point blank she was annoyed at the filing of "due process" and asked why I did not appear in court the day of the hearing. I explained I was never served and again attempted to provide my documents. She said she did not beleive me and then pretended she was doing me a favor by reducing the garnishment from 25% to 10%.

In the meantime, the attorney found a bank account and seized almost $10,000 to pay of the balance. Four days after the money was seized, I receive a letter of apology from the original creditor for the mistake. They lost the fraud affidavits and requested I resign. They promised to remiburse all the money seized improperly. Here it is in 2009 and I never saw a penny.

I did write to the judge, the court clerk, and the State Attorney General telling them exactly what I thought of the corruption of the credit industry and predicted a lot of the problems we have today in the system.

I may go back to school yet and trade in that Business Degree for a Law Degree. There is just too much corruption and not enough of enforcement to go around.

[coach purses]

Some people insist that only today and tomorrow matter. But how much poorer we would be if we really lived by that rule! So much of what we do today is frivolous and futile and soon forgotten. So much of what we hope to do tomorrow never happens.

[personal injury lawyer nyc]

So you;re saying i quit my carpe diem way of life ? That's no way ! Today matters, tomorrow i will suffer cos of yesterday.