One of the goals of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is to tell corporations to pick on someone their own size. Too often, abusive debt collection and lending practices result in individuals paying a substantial portion of their income to debt repayment. Once you factor in sky-high interest rates and miscellaneous fees, people often end up paying back amounts that are more than twice what they originally borrowed. Collection agencies provide no services at all to the consumers from whom they collect money; their only purpose is to make backroom deals with businesses that charge people bills that they may or may not have ever been able to pay.
Meanwhile, you, the consumer, can face ever-increasing debts, harassment, lawsuits, and wage garnishment from companies that can somehow afford to keep chasing you around in pursuit of debt repayment. If you are suffering from lawsuits and other horrible debt collection tactics, contact an Oakland lawsuits, collections, and creditor harassment lawyer.
The Dirtiest Debt Collection Tactics are Alive and Well, Right Here in California
California does a better job of protecting the working public from bullying by employers and businesses than many other states do. Its protections regarding minimum wage, paid leave, and health insurance coverage leave Californians less financially vulnerable than their counterparts in the rest of the Sun Belt. The Deep South is the business-to-consumer lawsuit capital of the United States, so you might think that California consumers are safe from being sued by businesses and collection agencies over unpaid consumer debts, but the data tell a different story.
Last year, one-third of cases filed in the civil courts of San Diego County were business-to-consumer lawsuits. This means that there were half as many business-to-consumer lawsuits as there were divorce filings, child custody modifications, probate cases, breach of contract disputes, discrimination lawsuits, name change petitions, and personal injury claims combined. Last year, business-to-consumer lawsuits accounted for an even greater share of the county’s civil cases. One particularly shady collection agency, Achievable Solutions, accounts for a disproportionate share of these filings.
Worst of all, many consumers who have been sued by creditors did not find out about the lawsuit until much later. A process server is supposed to serve the defendant with an official notice of the lawsuit as soon as it is filed, but many defendants in Achievable Solutions lawsuits say that they were never served with papers. As a result, they did not respond to the lawsuits against them, and the court entered a default judgment, making it easier for the creditor to get a wage garnishment order.
The best way to avoid nightmarish scenarios like these is to work with a debt lawyer to address your debts before things get to the point of wage garnishment.
Contact the Law Office of Melanie Tavare About Avoiding Business-to-Consumer Lawsuits
A debt relief lawyer can help you if creditors have sued you or are threatening to sue. Contact the Law Office of Melanie Tavare in Oakland, California, or call (510)255-4646 for a free case evaluation.
Sources
https://inewsource.org/2023/04/06/california-debt-collection-cases-lawsuits/
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