I filed my 2nd amended complaint today and it’s been a LONG SEVEN years in justice court, Phoenix federal court, 9th circuit court of appeals and for the last year back in Phoenix federal court.
Below is a long excerpt from the complaint and I’m hoping that many other consumers will find this posting and file their own lawsuits against these scumbag debt collectors.
Even better, wouldn’t it be something if people cared enough to do whatever it takes to get rid of our corrupt legislators and regulators?
I’m so fired up, I’m determined to check the recent lawsuits in Kingman justice court to see the current status of debt collection litigation in Mohave County.
Why should only Illinois consumers have these illegally obtained judgments vacated?
3/26/19 2nd Amended Complaint (PDF)
From my amended complaint:
BACKGROUND
Defendant Midland Funding is the nation’s largest buyer of consumer debts and it purchases charged off accounts from banks for pennies on the dollar. It then attempts to collect the full amount plus interest through aggressive and illegal collection tactics including lawsuits.
In countless lawsuits, class actions and regulatory actions over at least a decade, consumers and regulators litigated against the Midland Defendants for numerous violations of the FDCPA, such as robo signing of affidavits, submission of inadmissible and/or materially false documents and other unfair and deceptive practices.
In 2009, the Ohio federal court stated in Midland Funding LLC v. Brent, 644 F. Supp. 2d 961, 969 (N.D. Ohio 2009) modified on reconsideration, 308CV1434, 2009 WL 3086560 (N.D. Ohio Sept. 23, 2009):
However, this Court finds that the affidavit as a whole is both false and misleading for the aforementioned reasons and notwithstanding the fact that some of the data in it are correct. It is unclear to this Court why such a patently false affidavit would be the standard form used at a business that specialized in the legal ramifications of debt collection.
Despite millions of dollars in jury verdicts against the Midland Defendants and many settlements with regulators, they chose to continue their vile and illegal practices against unrepresented consumers and they sued me in 2012 for a charged off and time-barred HSBC credit card account without any admissible documentation.
The Midland Defendants know that consumers who defaulted on their credit cards most likely cannot afford to pay thousands of dollars for retainers to attorneys. Most Arizona judges despise consumer litigants and could not possibly care less whether debt buyers’ documents are admissible evidence. Mohave County doesn’t have a single consumer attorney and no attorney from the Phoenix / Tucson metro area would represent me in one of America’s largest and very rural and impoverished counties.
On 12/4/18, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan announced a $6 million settlement after an investigation into the Midland debt collection and litigation practices. From illinoisattorneygeneral.gov/pressroom/2018_12/2018124b.html:
… Under the settlement, Midland will completely eliminate or reduce more than 1,200 Illinois consumers’ judgment balances, a value of over $1.8 million, in cases where Midland used an affidavit against them in court between 2003 and 2009. …
As my case documents, the Midland Defendants continued their deplorable litigation practices in Arizona at least through 2012, presumably because they know that most Arizona legislators and regulators have been bribed or blackmailed by the finance industry.
This so-called justice system rarely renders justice and every single Midland debt collection suit should be audited, all judgments obtained without proper documentation should be vacated and payments made should be refunded – as in Illinois.
As the Midland litigation and settlement record shows, they are unstoppable and NOBODY ever goes to prison. In contrast, when consumers get caught shoplifting a few times, they go to jail.
The Midland Defendants are wholly owned by Encore Capital and its 2018 net income exceeded $115 million according to its 2018 SEC K-10 filing at http://investors.encorecapital.com/node/16071/html.
These insignificant settlements with regulators and the occasional jury verdict have no impact at all on Encore Capital and the Midland Defendants – it is a cost of doing business, similar to Fed Ex and UPS paying parking tickets for their delivery trucks.
Arizona and federal regulators condone the Midland Defendants’ highly organized theft of many millions of dollars from the poorest consumers.
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