Consumer Law

Alabama Consumer Sues Allied Interstate And LVNV For Violating The FDCPA After Consumer Wins Collection Suit

By M. Stan Herring

Hundreds of Alabama consumers are sued in small claims courts and district courts in Jefferson, Shelby, Tuscaloosa, St. Clair and other counties by debt buyers. Our client was sued by LVNV and our client won his case - the judge ruled our client did not owe LVNV any money which is what our client has maintained all along.

Instead of accepting the defeat with grace and correcting our client's credit report by deleting the false information on there - that he owes LVNV money - LVNV told the credit reporting agencies that our client still owes the money. Despite what the judge said. And, to add insult to injury, LVNV then sent the account out to be collected by the collection agency Allied Interstate. Therefore, our client sued LVNV and Allied Interstate for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Alabama state law.

This is a growing problem - debt buyers lose the collection case as more and more Alabama consumers are understanding that the debt buyers must prove they own the debt (and consumers are putting this in their answers to the complaints) and the result is debt buyers are losing collection cases. But then the debt buyers send the accounts out to be collected as if the consumer owed the money - completely ignoring what our state court judges have said.

To protect yourself, when sued by a debt buyer defend the case. Hire a lawyer or handle it yourself if you feel comfortable. Then after you win pull your credit reports, review them, then dispute any false information, and finally sue if the false information is not corrected. Please feel free to contact us if you live in Alabama and have questions about your credit reports.

Full post as published by Alabama Consumer Blog on July 23, 2008 (boomark / email).