Once again, I made a trek to the Upper Darby district court, only to find
that my opponent law firm, The Law Offices of Edward Abrahamsen and Associates,
P.C. failed to appear to prosecute the case on behalf of their client,
well known
" junk" debt buyer, LVNV Funding, LLC. This was my fourth court appearance in six weeks,
three in the Upper Darby court alone, where the Abrahamsen law firm failed
to appear to prosecute cases on behalf of "junk" debt buyers.
As a result, each of my clients was awarded judgment in their favor.
The Abrahamsen law firm is one of a handful of law firms who represent
many of the "junk" debt buyers in our area. I have had very
pleasant dealings with their attorneys, who have always been polite and
respectful to me. Unfortunately, their clients, like many "junk"
debt buyers, are flooding the courts with lawsuits in which they lack
sufficient evidence to prove their cases.
Because of that, I don't think that the lawyers representing these
type of clients can keep up with their own caseloads and, therefore, very
often don't show up for court. For those of you who are not familiar
with the term, "Junk" debt buyers refer to companies such, who
purchase supposed "charged off" credit card accounts for pennies
on the dollar. These folks then turn around and sue the alleged account
holder for the face amount of the
debt and, sometimes, ask for more money than what is allegedly owed. I say
"allegedly" because, very often, the "junk" debt buyer,
very often, does not have adequate documentation to prove that they own
the account and to win the case in court. When challenged with a competent
attorney, the "junk" debt buyers often lose in court.
Unfortunately, most people who are the target of the
debt collection efforts of the junk debt buyers and their law firms don't realize
that they can successfully defend the actions taken against them. In fact,
there are many instances where the consumer does not even owe the alleged
debt or the collection effort is being made beyond the Statute of Limitations,
which is the time allowed under the law, to bring such actions. Despite
these factors weighing in favor of the consumer, if the lawsuit is not
defended, judgment will be entered by default, against the consumer.
What I find most interesting, is that, of all the many cases I've defended,
I have yet to see one case where the debt buyer has submitted enough documents
to win even one case. Despite that, a review of each of the court dockets
of Delaware, Montgomery, Chester, Bucks and Philadelphia counties, reveals
that most of these lawsuits end up in default judgments in favor of the
debt buyers because nobody bothered to defend these winnable cases. If
you are being victimized by one of these debt buyers or a debt collection
law firm, please
contact either myself or a competent, Philadelphia consumer attorney, in your
area, immediately. You may not only be able to win the suit against you,
but may find that you can turn the tables on the debt collectors and sue them.
Under the
Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act ("FDCPA"), these debt collectors have very, clear rules that
they must follow when collecting debts, whether it be by phone call, letter
or the filing of a lawsuit. If the debt collector, including the "junk"
debt buyers and their attorneys, do not follow these rules, you may be
entitled to sue them and win up to $1000 in Federally mandated damages
plus the possibility of recovering for other damages against the debt
collectors. In addition, if you have a claim against the debt collectors
and you successfully sue them, you will be awarded attorney's fees
to pay for my efforts. So, don't sit on your rights. Act now and defend yourself!