I get  many inquiries from potential clients who want me to assist them with debt negotiation.  I will only negotiate a debt under very limited circumstances. 

The first circumstance where I will negotiate a debt is when the Plaintiff (the company that is suing you) is an original creditor.  An original creditor is the finance company that you established your credit account with.  Capital One files alot of their own lawsuits in Pennsylvania, so most times  I am open to negotiation for a client on a Capital One case. 

Negotiation really works best when you have a lump sum of money to offer as a settlement.  For instance, if you owe an alleged $10,000 debt, if you can offer $5000 or $6000 as a lump sum, then you have a shot at obtaining a settlement.  On the other hand, if you can only afford to pay $100 per month, a negotiation is not going to get much of a reduction for you, if any.

I also would consider negotiating with a collection agency on a very small case, perhaps under $1,000.  While my steadfast rule is to never negotiate with collection agencies, there is a reason that I would negotiate on this small amount.  Quite frankly, its more cost effective for the client to pay me an hour’s worth of fees to negotiate a settlement on a small case rather than to hire me to defend it in court for several hours of time.  

On larger claims, let’s say $1000 and up, I would almost never negotiate with a collection agency in Pennsylvania.  Hire me to defend the lawsuit, or, hire another attorney if that’s your choosing, but it would be money well spent.  A knowledgeable consumer attorney can defeat a collecton agency about 85% of the time, perhaps better, so you really should take your chances in court.

If you have any questions about debt negotiation, credit card accounts, collection agencies, or any other consumer matter, please contact my office at 412-823-8003 or 1-888-536-6644 for a free,  no obligation consultation.

I get asked this question alot and the truth of the matter is Yes, a collection agency can buy a delinquent account from a credit card company.  An account, of any sort, is a “legal interest” in something.  Any legal interest can be sold at any time, for any price.

It’s actually a good thing when your account is sold to a junk debt buyer.  Generally, the only things that the debt buyer acquires are your name, phone number, account number and the amount that is alleged due and owing.  That’s it!  How can they prove a case against you in a Pennsylvania court of law when they don’t have the documentation to back it up?  Most times, they can’t (as long as you file the proper response to the lawsuit and have the right legal representation). 

In further discussing the purchase of an account, there is a burden on the collection agency to prove that they actually purchased your specific account.  This purchase is often called an assignment.  Without this proof, the collecton agency does not have standing to move forward with a lawsuit.  Standing is generally defined as the legal right to sue someone. 

These agencies often have difficulty in establishing standing in these matters because they purchase so many accounts at one time.  I have never seen a collection agency purchase an individual creditor’s account one at a time.  Instead, they purchase these account in bulk, by blocks of money.  For example, maybe they purchase $2,000,000 of delinquent accounts for $40,000.  There could be 10,000 accounts in that sale, and its not feasible for the collection agency to include that list in every lawsuit that it files.  Our argument, which has been successful, is that they cannot prove standing without providing that list. 

If you would like a free, no obligation consultation on a credit card or collection agency matter, please call my office at 412-823-8003 or 1-888-536-6644.

I am very surprised by the number of people who don’t consult with a consumer attorney on a credit card case.  As soon as you receive a collection letter or phone call, you should speak to a consumer attorney right away.  Most of us, my office specifically, will give a free telephone consultation about the collection process and to discuss your defenses and rights. 

I have found that many of you instead call the collection agency to try to work out a payment plan.  What a huge mistake!  That is exactly what they want you to do, its part of what they base their business model on! The truth of the matter is that most collection agencies have difficulty in proving a case against you in a court of law.  That’s why they call you and use high pressure tactics to get you to pay.  Once you make a payment, or even agree to one, you may have severely damaged your case.

A frequent question that I face is whether the individual can handle the matter themselves.  I almost never think that this is a good idea.  They ask, what can I do that they can’t?  Think about it, I do this every day, with tremendous success.  I usually know exactly what language is in your lawsuit without even seeing it just by learning the name of the collection agency.  I know which attorneys they hire, how those attorneys operate, which documents they have, their usual success rate and so on.  Are you willing to risk a $9000 judgment against you just to save a few dollars in attorney fees?  It doesn’t make sense to me.  Look, I try to be as blunt as I can with clients, they really do appreciate it.  I’ll tell you if I can help you and I’ll also tell you if it’s in your interests to go another direction.  (I often do this with the smaller cases, where it doesn’t make sense to hire me to defend a $750 lawsuit).

The key is to not make a mistake by calling the agency or by filing your own response to the credit card lawsuit.  That’s my job, to handle that aspect of it and to give you a good result at the end.

If you have any questions about a collection agency or credit card lawsuit in Pennsylvania, call my office at 412-823-8003 for a free, no obligation consultation.

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.

Midland Funding is a collection agency, otherwise known as a “junk debt buyer”.  For the most part, Midland Funding buys blocks of accounts that are allegedly delinquent (in default status) from major financial institutions.  Midland then tries to collect on these accounts and if collection fails, they file lawsuits on these accounts.  As noted elsewhere on this site, these lawsuits are generally very easy to defend for an experienced consumer attorney.

The sale of delinquent accounts by financial institutions to junk debt buyers is perfectly legal in Pennsylvania, in fact, it happens on a daily basis.  Midland Funding is one of many junk debt buyers who buy accounts in Pennsylvania, and they are actually one of the larger firms doing so. 

Midland is often represented (but not always) by the law firm Mann Bracken.  Mann Bracken has a presence across PA, with offices in the eastern part of the state and in the western part as well (in Pittsburgh).

Our firm has dealt with Midland Funding and Mann Bracken on dozens of lawsuits in the last year, so we are very familiar with their cases and strategies.  If you are being pursued by Midland Funding, please give our office a call at 412-823-8003 or 1-888-536-6644 for a free consultation.

The phone rings and its a debt collection agency on the phone.  They are demanding that you pay off your Chase credit account from 4 years ago.  What to do?  Honestly, the answer is often that you should do nothing other than encourage them to sue you. 

In this day and age, there are 2 types of collection agencies.  The first is the agency that is working directly for the original creditor.  This type of agency is, in my opinion, a little more credible than the other type of collection agency.  The other type of collection agency what is called a “junk debt buyer”.  (LVNV, Atlantic Credit, Midland Funding, Asset Acceptance and the like are junk debt buyers).  You should almost never pay this type of agency.  The reason is that they are very easily beaten in court, at least with our office representing you. 

The only time that I consider recommending that a client pay one of these agencies is where the claim amount doesnt warrant the hiring of an attorney.  For instance, if you are being pursued for $700, it may be more cost effective to negotiate with the Collection Agency at that point than to hire an attorney for several hundred dollars on a defense.

Can a collection agency garnish my wages?  In a word, NO!  Only under very limited circumstances does Pennsylvania law permit the garnishment of wages, and a debt owed to a collection agency is not one of them. 

Garnishment of wages is a seizure of wages while they are still in the control of the employer, and have not yet been paid out to the employee. An employee’s wages, salaries and commissions may be taken from an employer through appropriate legal procedures to satisfy five kinds of debts:

• judgments for child or spousal support
• PHEAA student loans
• room and board for four weeks or less
• back rent on a residential lease
• obligations relating to final divorce distribution

Your wages cannot be garnished for any other purpose, including debt owed to a credit card company/collection agency. Garnishment of wages can only be accomplished only by a court order directed to the employer and no such court order can be issued without fair notice to the debtor/wage earner. Other than the kinds of debt listed above, no other debt or legal obligation can give rise to wage attachment in Pennsylvania. Federal laws such as IRS garnishment procedures may be used to garnish wages of Pennsylvania residents, but only through the federal court system

The lawsuit is filed, either at the District Justice or the Court of Common Pleas. If the lawsuit is filed at the local DJ, the collection agency is hoping that you do not attend the hearing, because they will then automatically win. After they obtain the judgment, they will transfer it to the Court of Common Pleas and begin execution proceedings. It is in your best interests to notify the District Justice that you are going to defend yourself immediately upon receiving the notice of the lawsuit from them. You should have an attorney represent you at that hearing, and you should not attend.  In magistrate cases, the collection agency almost never has the proper documentation to beat you in court.  They actually need you to attend so that they can question you and use your testimony against you. Have an attorney go in your place and the results should be in your favor.

If the lawsuit is filed in the Court of Common Pleas, you will receive a visit from your county Sheriff’s Department. A Deputy Sheriff will serve the paperwork on you at your home. Upon receipt of the lawsuit, you will have twenty (20) days to file a written response to the lawsuit that is called either an Answer or Preliminary Objections.

If you fail to file the written response in the allotted time, you will have a judgment entered against you without the benefit of having a hearing. As you can see, it is of the utmost importance to respond to the lawsuit immediately, to preserve your rights to defend yourself in a court of law. That is the key to beating a collection agency, i.e. to defend yourself in court, preferably with the right attorney. There are a number of issues that the collections agency must prove to obtain a judgment against you, and they typically cannot do so, again, as long as you properly defend yourself. You must force them to produce all of the documentary evidence in their claim against you, and then poke legal holes in their case.  A knowledgeable consumer attorney can file the proper responses to the lawsuit and you very likely will never end up in a courtroom.

Contact our office at 412-823-8003 or toll free at 1-888-536-6644 for a free telephone consultation if you have any questions regarding collection agency lawsuits in Pennsylvania.

If you hire the right Attorney, your chances are excellent. An experienced attorney can often handle these types of cases in a very efficient manner, with little involvement by the client. The reason is that there are so many issues that the collection agency has to prove to prevail in a court of law, and they often have difficulty doing so.

They have to prove a number of issues in a lawsuit to collect a debt. I often tell my clients that the Collection Agency has to prove A to Z, and in fact, they have to place all of that information in the actual lawsuit.  In my experience with these cases, I have found that the agency has great difficulty in proving many of the issues that they are required to prove.

First and foremost is that they have to prove that they have the right to sue you. Did the original creditor actually sell your account to them? Prove it to me. Often times, they can’t do it. They have to prove that they acquired the right to pursue the account that you allegedly defaulted on or the lawsuit gets thrown out, right there. 

Next, they have to prove that it was your account, and that you agreed to the terms and conditions that they allege are applicable to your account. This is a big one. Further, they have to prove that you made use of the credit account, they have to prove the interest rate, they have to prove the late fees, they have to prove that the lawsuit was filed within the proper Statute of Limitations, and so on. I have found that they have a great difficulty in proving these things if you present the proper defenses in the response to the lawsuit.

Contact our office at 412-823-8003 or toll free at 1-888-536-6644 for a free telephone consultation if you are being sued by a Collection Agency in Pennsylvania.

Make them prove their case, every single aspect of it. An experienced attorney can guide the way here. There are so many issues that the collection agency has to prove to prevail in a court of law. I like to tell my clients that the agency has to prove A through Z, and they often can only prove A through E.

The collection agency has to prove a number of issues in a lawsuit to collect a debt. First and foremost is that they have to prove that they have the right to sue you. Did the original creditor actually sell, or assign, your account to them? Show me the documents!

They also have to prove that it was your account, and that you agreed to the terms and conditions that they allege are applicable to your account. They also have to prove that you made use of the credit account, the interest rate, the late fees and more. Again, I force them to show me all of the documents. Most times, they cannot come up with the proper documents so we have the case dismissed.

Contact our office at 412-823-8003 or toll free at 1-888-536-6644 for a free telephone consultation if you are being sued by a Collection Agency in Pennsylvania.