Have a crushing load of debt?
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Move to Florida and get a drivers license. Florida law forbids judges from issuing judgement for debt acquired in another state (no, I'm not an atty and wouldn't want to be one).
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How Debt Collectors Get Away With Terrorizing Consumers -- With the Blessing of Public Officials
Thanks to a congressional loophole, local prosecutors actually hire private firms to harass citizens
Hirth wrote another letter to Safeway, begging the grocer to contact the prosecutor's office on her behalf. The letters and phone calls kept coming.
It wasn't until she got in touch with Arons that she discovered she wasn't being threatened by Cook County. It was Corrective Solutions, which has contracts with 21 counties in Illinois.
PHOTO BY RODRIGO PENA
Julie Orr
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In 2010, yet another class-action suit was filed against the company, this time on behalf of 600,000 victims in California and Pennsylvania. In November, Corrective Solutions agreed to pay a $3 million settlement. But because the class was so big, each victim would receive less than $3. A federal court refused the settlement, ordering both parties back to negotiations.
"The litigation has been hard," says the National Consumer Law Center's Hobbs. "Either these companies declare bankruptcy, or they just drag these things on forever, and no one gets paid."
As the case languishes in court, advocates hope Congress will finally close the 2006 loophole.
They received a glimmer of hope in October, when President Obama's new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that it would be overseeing debt collectors starting this year. For the first time in history, the feds will require those collectors making more than $10 million a year to supply regular reports to ensure they're not deceiving and threatening consumers.
Still, Moira Vahey, a CFPB spokeswoman, declined to comment on how it would deal with the bad-check programs.
For now, the only oversight comes from those making money on the deals: the district attorneys themselves. And they show little interest in policing the industry.
Take the Minnesota company once known as Financial Crimes Services. In 2009 it was sued for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The company agreed to pay $75,000 in penalties and court costs.
Last year, it changed its name to Check Diversion Program, and it's still operating throughout Minnesota and Wisconsin. "We're not a debt-collection company but a diversion program," CEO Scott Adkisson says. "We send out approved letters. And it's the DA's decision who gets them, not ours. We just manage the program."
The evidence suggests otherwise. In Minnesota's Goodhue County, the program is run by the Red Wing Police Department, which referred inquiries back to Adkisson. Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson would not respond to interview requests, either.
Levin believes this lack of oversight may be the key to dismantling the programs: If prosecutors aren't reviewing the cases, collection agencies aren't legally eligible for immunity.
In the meantime, victims like Orr, Schwarm and Hirth have little recourse but to hire lawyers, paying thousands to defend themselves for bouncing a $50 check at the grocery store.
7 comments
I'm a non-partisan Independent. While I deem it commendable that we rein in over-zealous debt-collectors who resort to unethical tactics to collect debts, I think we should also be mindful of how all-too-often the same can be said for debt-collection in the form of government taxation.
The Obama admin, for example, has been terrorizing Catholics and Protestants whose beliefs are opposed to government funding of abortions. I myself am not into mysticism, so all religion is utter nonsense to me. Yet I deem human life sacred, and I believe no one has the right to "play God" with the life of another. And though a woman can legally kill her kid before birth, at least don't use my tax dollars to make such a morally wrong "choice."
When you come right down to it, ALL murderers are "pro-choice." A man who sticks you up with a gun and shoots you dead made a "choice" to kill you.
@tncdel This may sound callous but, non-aborted babies would cost the taxpayers hundreds millions of dollars. It is a woman's choice, because it is her body. There are more important things to be worrying about than theoretical humans, because they aren't considered a "life" until after a certain point- after which an abortion is illegal.
@laxx1559 @tncdel, You said, "It is a woman's choice, because it is her body."
If you had taken at least a high school level course in biology, you wouldn't have said something embarrassing yourself like that. Sorry to burst your PC bubble, but it's the body of the unborn baby, not the mother's body, that gets killed.
Corrective Solutions paid handsomely for that loophole. Between 2003 and 2006, the company spent more than $660,000 on lobbying. It also slathered donations on key senators like Connecticut Democrat Christopher Dodd, who would later leave office after accepting a sweetheart deal from a mortgage company.
And the Sheeple still feel that the Democrats look out for the people.
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This type scam on consumers comes to you via Eric Garcetti, Daryl Steinberg, Denis Zine, Jan Perry, Wendy Greuel, and a host of other goniffs and mamzers like billionaires Eli Broad and former Mayor Riordan. Here's how the scam works --
The corrupt politicos give billions of tax dollars to corrupt developers. The main vehicle to steal the tax dollars were the Community Redevelopment Agencies which Gov Brown with the help of the Calif Supreme Court abolished effective 2-1-2012. The death of the CRA's is a major reason that State does not have a deficit this year. The Governor's tax increase was also necessary since Garcetti and Friends had squandered billions of tax dollars and the public had no choice except to pay twice to replenish the stolen tax funds.
The cities, counties and State have been running other scams to loot the citizenry of their money in order to make up for the billions given to the corrupt developers. One scam is to give out bogus tickets or make unsubstantiated criminal charges against the poor. Then the poor are allowed to buy their way out of jail by paying the cities, counties, and state hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars. The government would not be running these criminal scams if they would stop giving away tax dollars to billionaires. Look at all the money to AEG, to corrupt Hollywood developers, to CIM Midtown, tax rebates to hotels, promises to refurbish downtown hotels.
If you have a medical marijuana card but the cops nonetheless bust you, you can hear the assertion that your doctor did not write out your diagnosis and your prescription is invalid. I've heard this nonsense directly from a judge (no not me, I don't use MJ). Then the victim-defendant has a choice stay in jail until his trial or enter into supervised probation -- which can cost thousands of dollars per year.
The city has the scam whereby you get a ticket for parking at a broken meter. That means a broken meter is likely to bring in $1,000.00 per day in fines, but a functioning meter won't bring in more than $20/day -- which is why there are more and more broken meters even though the new meters are supposed not to break.
If you want to be further victimized by the government running criminal scams, just vote for Garcetti, or Perry, or Trutanich, or Greuel, Feuer, or Zine, or anyone else who has been in government during the last ten years. They are the ones who gave away tens of billions of tax dollars and have been cheating you in order to raise funds to keep the system afloat.
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