Judson E. Crump, PC

Buy-Here-Pay-Here Repossessions – Alabama Consumer Rights Lawyer Judson E. Crump

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Has your vehicle been repossessed by a Buy-Here-Pay-Here dealership?

Repossessions are hard on folks.  You’ve lost your car.  You’ve lost the money that you’ve put into it.  Your credit has taken a hit.  Maybe your neighbors or co-workers witnessed the whole thing and it’s embarrassing.  Simply getting a car repossessed is hard enough.  But sometimes dealers and repo companies make it worse by not respecting your rights during and after the repossession.

Know your rights after a Repo!

Contrary to what the car sales and finance industries would have you believe, you have certain rights when your car has been repossessed.  You have the right to be notified of what they’re going to do with your car, and you have the right to redeem it if you can afford it.  If they sell your car, they can’t profit from the sale of your vehicle.

That’s right.  If a car dealer or finance company sells your car, they can’t keep any money they make over the balance due on the vehicle.

Here’s an example:

You buy a car whose cash price is $10,000 with $600 of taxes and fees.  So the total price is $10,600.

You pay a $2,000 down payment and agree to $300/month for 48 months.  So the amount financed is $8,600.

After paying for 6 months, you miss a payment and the car gets repossessed.  At the time of the repo, the balance due on the car is $8,200, and the creditor paid the repo man $300 to repo the car.  Your balance is now $8,500.

The creditor sells the car.  If the creditor sells the car for $8,000, then you owe  $500.  [$8,500 – $8,000 = $500].

However, if the creditor sells the car for $9,000, then the dealer owes you $500.  [$8,500 – (-$9,000) = -$500].

This seems like common sense, right?  But believe it or not, used car dealerships break this rule all the time.

Small used car dealers and buy-here-pay-here dealerships usually don’t sell their repossessed vehicles at an auction.  Rather, they put them back on their lot and sell them to another customer.  So if you paid $2000 down on a $10,000 car that was repossessed 6 months later, it is extremely unlikely that the car has lost $2,000 in value during that time.  But when they go to sell the car to another customer, they want to make as much money as possible by selling it for as much as they can.  If they sell it for more than the amount you owe at the time it was repossessed, then they have to pay you the money they made off the second sale.

Now, it’s very hard to determine the price they got for a vehicle.  That’s why you call a lawyer who knows how to handle these sorts of cases.

If you’ve had a car that has been repossessed and sold from the same lot that repossessed your car, call a knowledgeable Alabama consumer rights lawyer to see what you can do about it.

Are you in the Equifax Data Breach? DO NOT sign up with their website!! – Alabama Credit Reporting Attorney Judson E. Crump

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Equifaxsecurity2017.com was created by Equifax in response to the hack.  But asking for their help requires you to waive your rights to sue them.  Don’t fall for it.

When the news broke that Equifax had let the personal information of millions of Americans get stolen by hackers, the giant data company responded by rolling out a new website, equifaxsecurity2017.com, where people are supposed to be able to enter some basic information and determine if their information was exposed.  But the website is a trojan horse: if you sign up for their help protecting yourself from their massive negligence, you have to waive your right to take them to court if it later turns out that they have wrecked your finances.

Attached to the “security” service is an Arbitration Agreement and Class Action waiver.  As everyone knows, arbitration agreements are designed to ensure that no sort of fraud or deceit or illegal conduct will ever be exposed inside of a court room.  Our radically business-friendly Supreme Court has upheld this sort of agreement, even in circumstances where they are grossly unfair and have worked huge injustices to working people.

Yeah.

So basically, when Equifax discovered that it had massively screwed up and put millions of Americans at big financial risk, their first thought wasn’t: “How do we fix this?”

It was: “How do we keep all of these people from coming after us for the damage we’ve caused?”

So they came up with a rather ingenious plan: “We’ll offer a free ‘security’ service and make it look like we’re trying to help, but when people enroll in the service, we’ll bury some nasty legal talk in the fine print that will prevent them from being able to take us to court.”

The definition of a Trojan Horse.

Don’t fall for their scam.

Don’t fall for it.  You don’t need Equifax to tell you if you’ve been breached.  If you’ve had a credit card, auto loan, or mortgage for more than a few years, you can pretty safely assume that you’re affected.

Buy an independent credit monitoring service and go ahead and send the credit bureaus a security freeze request.  This will make it hard for anyone to open fraudulent accounts or debts in your name without personally being present with proof of ID.

And go ahead and reset those passwords.

“Asset Recovery Associates” sued for FDCPA and Fair Credit Violations

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Financial Credit Service, Inc., also known as “Asset Recovery Associates, Inc.” has been sued in Alabama for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act and Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Our client is a recently retired docks worker.  He has good credit, good income, and has made it a practice of paying his bills on time.  So imagine his surprise when he got a telephone call from a debt collector called “Asset Recovery Associates, Inc.”  He’d never dealt with them in this life, and had never even heard of them.  But their collection agent was aggressive and convincing.  She said that he owed a substantial debt to “Bank One,” and that it was very urgent for my client to pay them immediately.  She said that if he didn’t pay them, they would initiate legal proceedings against him.

Not only did they sound sure of themselves and aggressive, their agent knew a lot of his personal information like his name, address, and date of birth.  This was very disturbing, though, and made their threats sound more dangerous.

We aren’t sure if the account ever actually existed, but if it was a real account at some point, we believe that it was the result of identity theft.  My client knows that he never opened an account with “Bank One,” and the debt collector hasn’t offered any proof that he actually opened the account or borrowed money from ARA, Financial Credit Service, or or Bank One.

We also aren’t sure where they got his personal information.  It is possible that they got it from his credit report, or that it was purchased from data dealers or hackers.  We do know that they obtained at least one of his credit reports, though he never provided them with any permission to do so.

We sued them in the case of Bradley v. Financial Credit Service, Inc., d.b.a. Asset Recovery Associates, Inc., Southern District of Alabama civil case number 17-cv-299-WS-MU.  The lawsuit alleges that Asset Recovery Associates violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) by :

  • Trying to collect a debt that was not owed.
  • Falsely threatening to sue my client.
  • Falsely telling a credit reporting agency that they had a legitimate business purpose for obtaining his credit reports.

The lawsuit also alleges that Asset Recovery Associates violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) by digging into his credit history without his permission or a legitimate business purpose for doing so.

The lawsuit seeks $50,000 plus court costs and attorneys’ fees.

The lawsuit itself can be found on this link:

FDCPA & FCRA Lawsuit Against Asset Recovery Associates, Inc.

The Apple Warranty – Alabama Consumer Rights Lawyer Judson E. Crump

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iPhones, iPods, and MacBooks are Super Expensive.  What do you do when they fail?

As we all know, Apple products are more expensive than their Android counterparts, due to the panache and trendy image that Apple has managed to cultivate among consumers.  And to be fair, Apple products are usually pretty good quality, so not all of the extra money you spend goes to the Apple image.

But even good manufacturers sometimes turn out bad products.  And even a decently made phone can have minor defects that can be really annoying.  For instance, your new $600 iPhone may have a scratch on the screen.  Or a spot in the corner that always looks purple.  Or a fuzzy sound in the earpiece.  Or an annoyingly loud vibration.  Or maybe the software doesn’t update correctly or the apps don’t work right.

Apple offers a 1 year limited warranty on most of their products.  The warranty is pretty typical of electronics.  It covers “defects in materials and workmanship,” but excludes lots of stuff.  The biggest and most common sense exclusion is damage that occurs after you’ve bought it, and which wasn’t caused by a pre-existing defect.

Some other exclusions are:

  • “consumable parts” like batteries that naturally weaken or degrade over time;
  • Damage caused by unauthorized repairs (repairs by anyone other than an Apple dealer);
  • Damage resulting from using non-Apple parts (i.e. a case or speakers);
  • Products that are stolen or have had serial numbers removed.

More important to you than the exclusions are the procedures that you have to go through to get an actual warranty repair.  Under American warranty law, you have to give a manufacturer a reasonable opportunity to cure any breach of warranty.  To take full advantage of this, Apple has a specific procedure for making a warranty claim.

First, you need to keep proof of the purchase.

Second, you need to contact Apple online or through an Apple Store.

Third, you either bring the product to an Apple store or mail it back to Apple.

Apple will then decide whether or not they want to honor the warranty claim.  If they do, then they’ll either repair or replace your product.  Usually, they replace it, so be sure to download your data to an independent source and delete your personal information.

If they don’t fix it, however, then you’ve got a legal problem.  Usually, a denied warranty repair request happens because the manufacturer doesn’t believe your story.  They think that the damage you want repaired was caused by you, and not their manufacturing.  Sometimes this is obvious: a cracked screen is extremely unlikely to be Apple’s fault.  It is possible, of course, but rare.  If something like this happens, then it’s very important to take photos and document the condition of the iPhone or iPad on delivery.

In fact, you should ALWAYS document any defect as much as possible.  Take screenshots and photos of the defect.  If it’s a sound defect, make a recording.  If it’s Apple software that is malfunctioning, then you should video it while it’s screwing up.  Because if you need to take legal action, it’s your case to prove.  You’ll have to present evidence that it was their defect, and not your fault.

Assuming you can prove that the defect was there when you bought the iPhone, then you can take legal action.  Now at first glance, it seems like it may not be worth it to hire a lawyer for a $600 phone.  Even though that’s a lot of money, lawyers are even more expensive, right?

Not so fast.  Thankfully, there’s a law called the Magnuson Moss Warranty Act, which says that if a manufacturer fails to honor a valid warranty request after you’ve complied with their warranty procedures, and you have to sue them, then if you win, they have to pay your lawyer’s fees.  This means that even if you sue them for $500, the Court can make them pay your lawyer, even if his fees are in the thousands.

So if you have a defective cell phone, computer, or tablet, then do your best to get the manufacturer to repair it.  But if they don’t, keep your proof and call a lawyer.

Alabama Woman Sues Nationwide Credit Reporting Agencies for False Credit Reporting – Alabama Fair Credit Reporting Attorney Judson E. Crump

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Fair Credit Reporting Act Lawsuit Filed against TransUnion, Experian, and JPMorgan Chase Bank

On June 21, 2017, we filed the case of Savage v. Chase, TransUnion, & Equifax in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.  Our client was the victim of identity theft.  Somehow, an unknown individual in Atlanta opened a credit card accountin my client’s name.  They then proceeded to spend about $15,000, which they of course never paid back, hoping to leave my client with the bill.

The lawsuit alleges that our client disputed the fraudulent account numerous times, but that even after learning of her protestations of innocence, the credit bureaus refused to fix her report and delete the fraudulently opened account.  Obviously, it is difficult for a credit reporting agency to know whether an account is legitimate or fraudulent by simply looking at the paperwork.  The vast majority of credit card accounts that appear on credit reports are completely legitimate and usually fairly accurate.  However, when an identity theft victim notifies the credit report companies that an account is fraudulent or incorrect, the credit reporting agencies have a clear statutory duty to investiget the account, listen to the consumer’s side of the story, and figure out whether or not the account should be altered or deleted.

The lawsuit alleges that the credit reporting agencies (in this case, Experian Information Solutions and Trans Union, LLC) and the credit card company just failed to do what they were supposed to do, leaving a massive $15,000 bill on her credit reports.  My client was particularly insulted by this, because her credit is otherwise perfect.

If a credit bureau violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act and harms a consumer, they are liable to the consumer plaintiff for all monetary damages caused, reasonable emotional and reputation harm damage, lost or increased credit costs, and if the violation was done willfully (for instance, if you’ve disputed a bogus account several times to no avail), then they can also be held liable for punitive damages and a statutory penalty of $1,000.  If you win at trial, they also must pay your attorney a reasonable fee.  In this FCRA case, we’ve requested $50,000 in damages plus court costs and attorneys’ fees.

Hopefully, the lawsuit can be resolved before trial, freeing my time and resources to pursue the real identity thief under Alabama’s identity theft statute, the Alabama Consumer Identity Protection Act.

Medical Device Warranties – Alabama Consumer Rights Attorney Judson E. Crump

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Medical Device Warranties

When most people think of warranties, cars are what first comes to mind.  But the most expensive and important consumer products that bring warranty concerns are medical devices.  Hip and knee implants, meshes, trachial tubes, pacemakers, and prosthetics are a few common ones, but there are hundreds.  The obvious thing that separates most medical devices from other consumer products is that they are extremely important to their users, because they’re basically a part of a person’s body.  If something goes wrong with an implanted medical device, it can cause disastrous consequences.

Truly dangerous malfunctions are usually the subject of product liability actions.  But not all medical device malfunctions or breakdowns cause catastrophic injuries.  Sometimes they just need to be replaced.  Unfortunately, this can often require a whole surgical procedure.  Some medical device warranties today cover surgical costs, which are otherwise usually paid for by the hospital.

When a medical device manufacturer is not honoring their warranties, then you may need to consider legal action.  If this has happened to you, call me at 251-272-9148 to discuss your options.

Alabama Legislature Working Hard to Protect Scammers, Pyramid Schemes, and False Advertisers – Alabama Consumer Rights Lawyer Judson E. Crump

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Pyramid Schemes.  False Advertising.  Deceptive Sales Scams.  This behavior has been officially protected by the Alabama Legislature.

In March of 2016, Mr. Phillip “Phil” Williams, an Alabama state Senator from Huntsville, offered a huge favor to fraudulent businesses: he proposed SB270.  This was a law that amended the Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act.  The ADTPA is Alabama’s version of what most states call a UDAP (Unfair and Deceptive Acts and Practices) statute.  Every state has one.  These statutes regulate things like false advertising, door-to-door or telephone sales, sweepstakes scams, pyramid schemes, bait-and-switch advertising, and outright deceit.  Basically, really bad stuff that some businesses do in order to make mor emoney.  The sort of stuff that everybody in their gut knows is just morally wrong.

The Alabama Deceptive Trade Practices Act is pretty weak compared to other states, because it requires a 15 day advance warning letter, it exempts insurance companies and financial institutions, and it bans class actions in state court.

But apparently it wasn’t weak enough for the big money lobby.  See, federal courts follow their own rules of civil procedure, and therefore allow class actions in federal court, even where the state law may not allow that.  When the Eleventh Circuit recently confirmed that principle in the case of Lisk v. Lumber One Wood Preserving.  That case was a typical deceptive trade practices case.  What happened was this: a man bought some “treated” wood to build a fence that was supposed to be, well, “treated.”  Which means that it is supposed to be protected from rot and termites.  Well, Lumber One didn’t treat the wood.  And it rotted.  So Mr. Lisk was left with a worthless, rotting fence.  He sued for himself and for everyone else that Lumber One had ripped off.  The Eleventh Circuit confirmed that yes, you can do that in federal court.

You wouldn’t think this would be a big deal, right?  I mean, who wants to protect a corporation that sells people rotting wood?  Senator Phil Williams and the rest of the Alabama Legislature, that’s who.

As they do for every lawsuit, big businesses all across the country threw a hissy fit.  They saw signs of the apocalypse.  “If we don’t protect businesses from scams that leave people with rotting fences, jobs will leave!  The economy will crash!”  The corporate lawyers that represent them echoed the party line:

Obviously, this is a load of crap.  Lumber One didn’t face a class action because some judges in Atlanta went crazy.  They faced a class action because they cheated hundreds of honest paying customers out of millions of dollars.  That’s how it always is.

But even when they’ve genuinely done wrong, big businesses hate having to pay the consequences of their actions.  They hate class actions because if they can shut down class actions, they can get away with millions of small frauds and ripoffs as long as they only swindle a hundred bucks or so from each customer.  So when they wanted a get-out-of-jail free card, they went to Senator Phil Williams, and asked him to pass a bill they wrote.

And guess what?  It passed.  Nearly unanimously.  The bill changes the label on the no-class-action provision in an attempt to circumvent the federal rules.  In other words, they want the state court rules to apply in federal court too.

This bill was utterly unnecessary.  The ADTPA was rarely used anyway, because of its preexisting limitations.  Fortunately, the Alabama legislature doesn’t have power over the federal courts.  So hopefully, this anti-consumer sellout of our legislature will be ingored by the federal courts.

$180,000 of Student Loan Debt Dismissed – Alabama Debtor’s Rights Lawyer Judson E. Crump

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My Client was sued by NCLST for over $180,000 of Student Loans.  We got the cases dismissed.

National Collegiate Student Loan Trust filed 4 separate lawsuits against my client in the Circuit Court of Washington County, Alabama.  They alleged that my client was liable for 4 separate student loan promissory notes.

As an assignee, NCLST had the burden of proving not only that the debt itself and the amount of it was accurate, but also that they had the chain of title proving their right to collect the debt.

The loans were also private, meaning that the normal contract statute of limitations applied.

We challenged their standing and proof.  The collector ultimately agreed to dismiss all four cases.  This resulted in a massive amount of savings for our client.

The dismissal orders can be found here:

Order-Dismissed – 54 Order-Dismissed – 51 Order-Dismissed – 53 Order-Dismissed – 52

If you or someone you know has been sued by NCLST, call the law office of Judson E. Crump to discuss your options for dealing with this debt.  The consultation is free, and our fees are reasonable.  251.272.9148.

Chuck Stevens Chevrolet Found Liable for Defrauding Alabama Woman – Consumer Rights Attorney Judson E. Crump

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Chuck Stevens Chevrolet of Atmore, Inc. sold Tamie Shufford a car that had about 1,000 more miles on it than they certified in their sale contract.

Their salesman told her the car was new and had only 67 miles on it.  The paperwork and the odometer disclosure forms said the same thing.  But as it turned out, the car had been previously sold to another woman.  For some reason, that deal was later canceled, so Chuck Stevens then turned around and sold the car to Ms. Shufford, stating that it was still new and that it still had 67 miles on it.

She complained to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office and wrote Chuck Stevens asking for a partial refund, but they didn’t offer her any relief.  They said that “This vehicle was contracted for sale to another person; however the financing never took place so the sale was reversed.  Ms. Shufford was sold a new car…”

So we sued them under the Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act, a federal law that requires dealers to execute title transfer and mileage disclosure paperwork clearly and accurately.  The matter went to arbitration, and the previous buyer of the vehicle came forward to testify that she not only had in fact taken the vehicle home and driven it for a few days, but that she had taken it on a trip to Tampa, Florida!  Which would have meant that the odometer disclosures written in Ms. Shufford’s contract were off by about a thousand miles.

At the arbitration, Chuck Stevens had its employees and former employees testify that these sorts of deals were “common” in the industry.  Their excuse for “forgetting” that the vehicle’s odometer reading was off by a thousand miles was that their computer system didn’t fix it for them.

The arbitrator wasn’t buying it.  He found that:

The Respondent had knowledge that the vehicle had been operated to some extent by Ms. (redacted) and had the vehicle in its possession for a least a couple of weeks prior to the sale to the Claimant.  It could have easily checked the “cumulative mileage registered on the odometer” as required by the MVICSA…the Respondent was at least grossly negligent or acted with disregard of the truth.”

Which was, of course, exactly what happened.

The Motor Vehicle Information and Cost Savings Act has a minimum penalty of $10,000 if a dealer violates it with intent to defraud, as Chuck Stevens was found to have done here.  So the arbitrator awarded a judgment for that amount, plus $3,333 for attorneys’ fees.  And Chuck Stevens also had to pay $2,200 for arbitration administration fees and $1,500 for arbitrator compensation.

Now, car dealers usually love arbitration because it keeps these sorts of lawsuits from getting before a jury.  But this time, the dealer found itself on the losing end of its own arbitration clause. And here’s the beautiful part: once Chuck Stevens was faced with the consequences of its decision to use mandatory arbitration clauses, did they honor the arbitrator’s decision?  No.  They didn’t.  Guess where they went?

To the public court system!  The very court system that arbitration is designed to avoid!

Yes, they filed this gem of a motion:  Chuck Stevens Wants A Re-Do After it Loses Arbitration

The motion asked the Escambia County Circuit Judge to overturn the arbitrator’s decision.  Their motion basically said that since the arbitrator made the (in their opinion) wrong decision, they should give them another shot.

Believe me, as a lawyer who’s been on the losing end of arbitration before, I feel their pain.  But, tough shit.  It’s nearly impossible to overturn an arbitration award in Alabama (and, honestly, in most places in the USA), and this case was no exception.  The statute authorizes an award of $10,000 plus a reasonable lawyer’s fee if the defendant violates the MVICSA statute with intent to defraud. The arbitrator found they’d violated it with intent to defraud and gave us exactly what the statute said.

Unsurprisingly, the Circuit Court flatly rejected Chuck Stevens’ argument, and entered this order: Judge Rejects Chuck Stevens’ Request to Overturn Arbitration Decision.

So now it’s official: Chuck Stevens Chevrolet of Atmore, Inc. has been found liable for violating its customer’s rights, and they’re going to have to pay.

Sure, arbitration is something that is used often to unfairly keep defrauded customers out of court, but in the right type of case, you can still get a fair result.

If you’ve been defrauded by a business who has stuck you with mandatory arbitration, don’t despair.  Call an experienced fraud arbitration lawyer to discuss your legal rights.

NOTE: These recoveries and testimonials are not an indication of future results. Every case is different, and regardless of what friends, family, or other individuals may say about what a case is worth, each case must be evaluated on its own facts and circumstances as they apply to the law. The valuation of a case depends on the facts, the injuries, the jurisdiction, the venue, the witnesses, the parties, and the testimony, among other factors. Furthermore, no representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers.

Alabama Woman Obtains Judgment Against Florida Debt Settlement Attorney for Legal Malpractice – Alabama Consumer Rights Lawyer Judson E. Crump

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$19,333.52 Judgment Awarded Against the Law Offices of Paul A. Herman

Back in 2013, our client faced insurmountable credit card debt incurred paying for medical expenses when her child broke a limb.  Like many honest people who don’t want to file bankruptcy, she was contacted by a debt settlement company that promised to “resolve” her delinquent accounts.  But this debt settlement company was more than a garden-variety debt settlement company.  This outfit was a real law firm, operated by a real lawyer.

One of the many promises made by this company was that if the client was sued by a debt collector or creditor, they would defend her against any such lawsuit.  My client paid $7,500 to this outfit, and trusted them to resolve her problems.

Well, sure enough, she got sued by one of her creditors.  And guess what?  The debt settlement lawyer didn’t defend her, nor did he find anyone else to defend her.  She ended up having to refinance her mortgage and sacrifice thousands of dollars of home equity to settle the credit card lawsuit.

She was furious and hurt, so she called me.  We sued the law office and its principal, Paul A. Herman, a Boca Raton, Florida lawyer for breach of fiduciary duty and legal malpractice.  After months of litigation, the Circuit Court of Mobile County awarded our client a judgment for $19,333.52 plus court costs.

The court found her actual financial loss to be $3,583.38, awarded emotional distress damages of $10,750.14, and $5,000 in punitive damages.

A copy of the order can be found here: Judgment: Phillips v. Herman.

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