Consumer Law

Martha Kunkle is Dead

By Sam Glover

This is old-ish news, but I just got wind of it. Debt buyers and prolific lawsuit-filers CACV and Portfolio Recovery Associates, together with debt collection law firm Johnson, Rodenberg & Lauinger, were supporting their lawsuits with affidavits of Martha Kunkle. Apparently, an employee of Washington Mutual Bank (now bankrupt) told others to sign Martha Kunkle’s names to those affidavits.

The problem was that Martha Kunkle died fifteen years ago, in 1995.

The defendants settled for over one million dollars.

This is not the first time Johnson, Rodenberg & Lauinger has appeared here. Last April, a jury awarded a Montana consumer $311,000 for violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

Settlements top $1 million in debt-collection lawsuit | Billings Gazette

Full post as published by Caveat Emptor on May 26, 2010 (boomark / email).