Junk judgments: Welcome relief from Cuomo for thousands of victims of debt scammers
nydailynews.com - July 27, 2009
Signaling the discovery of massive fraud, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the state's chief administrative judge are seeking to vacate as many as 100,000 court judgments that have been filed against New Yorkers by predatory debt collectors.
According to Cuomo, evidence uncovered in an investigation of a Long Island-based process serving firm revealed that collection agencies have run amok in the courts from Buffalo to Montauk.
It worked like this: Debt collector retained a high-volume law firm to go after supposed deadbeats. Law firm hired process server to haul people into court with a summons and complaint. Process server never delivered the papers but swore they had been properly provided.
When the supposed deadbeat failed to respond because he had no idea he had been sued, the law firm had a court issue a default judgment. The victim's assets were frozen or wages garnished.
American Legal Process of Lynbrook, L.I., exploited this scam relentlessly, helping almost three dozen law firms hammer people over debts - some owed, some already paid, some bogus - to the tune of roughly $5,500 each.
Cuomo is suing the firms, as well he should, and Administrative Judge Ann Pfau has rightly joined in the effort to clean up this astonishingly broad perversion of the courts.
Junk judgments: Welcome relief from Cuomo for thousands of victims of debt scammers
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