Ms. W was sued by Atlantic Credit and Finance for approximately $9000.00 in Dauphin County.  Ms. W hired our firm to defend and we noticed right away that the lawsuit was defective. With a defective lawsuit in Pennsylvania, the proper response is typically to file Preliminary Objections. We won the first round of arguments on the objections, forcing Atlantic Credit to cure the defects that were present in the complaint.  I guess that I should say that we forced them to “try” to cure the defects. Atlantic filed an Amended Complaint and it was still very defective.  We responded with another set of Objections to the Complaint and after Argument, the judge threw the case out for failing to cure the defects.  The lawsuit was lacking in many areas.  It failed to include a signed application, a cardmember agreement, or any of the monthly account statements.

In a rare occurrence, the judge issued a written opinion on the case, which was reported by the courts. Typically, judges simply issue brief orders that either dismiss the case or move the case forward to trial.  The written opinion is issued where an issue continues to re-occur and the court wants to set a standard for all similar cases.  We are proud to have helped Ms. W and we are also very proud to have had a written opinion issued in our favor.  Until another opinion changes the law, our case is the standard for credit card cases in Dauphin County.

Atlantic Credit and Finance is one of the largest Junk Debt Buyers that operate in Pennsylvania.  A junk debt buyer is a company, often a collection agency, that purchases allegedly delinquent accounts from banks, credit card companies, and other institutions that extend credit.  They purchase these accounts in bulk, often for mere pennies on the dollar.  Our estimation is that they average around 3 cents per dollar on a purchase. 

Atlantic Credit, in my estimation, files about 50 or so lawsuits per week across PA.  Although they use other law firms, for the most part they use David Apothaker and Associates, a New Jersey law firm, to handle their PA collection matters.  In my experience, Attorney Apothaker’s office has been very cordial to deal with. 

Atlantic Credit typically makes oral or written attempts to collect on these cases before filing a lawsuit.  If you receive a phone call or letter from Atlantic Credit or their attorney, please contact my office right away for a free consultation.  I can explain the process to you and guide you along the way.  I would almost never recommend a negotiation on the claim at this point as it is definitely NOT in your best interests.

Eventually, a lawsuit will come.  Believe it or not, you actually want Atlantic to sue you.  The lawsuits generally are easily defended (though we don’t win every case, we do have an extremely high success rate) and will allow you to move forward with the restoration of your credit. 

Call our office at 412-823-8003 or 1-888-536-6644 for a free, no obligation consultation on your Atlantic Credit matter.