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Where Do We Learn This Stuff?

November 7, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

From November 6 through 8th, I’ll be heading down to Tampa, FL for the National Association of Consumer Advocates‘ annual Consumer Rights Litigation Conference. It’s going to be awesome. I mean, look at some of the lecture topics:

“Civil Rights Litigation – Getting and Crunching the Data” – for those Fair Housing Act cases.

“ABCs of the Fair Credit Reporting Act” – I like to think that I already know all alphanumerically abbreviated important points of FCRA, but a refresher never hurts.

“Fighting Repossessions in the 21st Century: New Technology and Legal Strategies” – Repo man stories never get old.

“Dealers Add-Ons, Subtracting Payments from Consumers, Multiplying Profits for Dealers, and Dividing Policy Makers” – Self-Explanatory.

“How to Handle the Math in Mortgage Servicing Cases” – Because apparently I’m not the only one who absolutely hates poring through pages and pages of mortgage payment history printed in a manner where the columns never match up.

“Coffee Break”

“Federal Preemption of State Laws after Dodd-Frank”

“Helping Online Payday Borrowers” – ‘For The LORD will Plead their cause, and plunder those who plunder them’ Prov. 22:23

“The Ethical and Legal Restrictions on Confidentiality Agreements and Sealed Documents”

“The Predatory World of Student Loan Collections: How it Works and What Can Be Done”

“Payment Processors and Originating Banks”

“Jake Halpern Book Signing – Bad Paper: Chasing Debt from Wall Street to the Underworld”

“Medical Debt (and Affordable Care Act Issues)”

“Installment Lending: A Growth Industry Begging for Regulation and Lawsuits”

“Plenary – FILM SCREENING – Lost in the Fine Print (2014, Alliance for Justice)”

“Manufactured Housing: Defending Foreclosures and Attacking Defects in the Homes”

“Challenging Financial Fraud and Scams Aimed at Older Adults”

There’s more. But I’m not going to blog about them since it’s time to get going home to put a roof on my kids new playground I built in the back yard. It is VERY exciting. I love my job.

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$8,000 Discover Bank Collection Suit Defeated – Alabama Collection Defense Attorney Judson E. Crump

November 5, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

05-DV-2014-900924 Discover Bank v. Donovan

Unlike many of the Visa and Mastercard issuers (except the customer-hating Capital One), Discover Bank rarely sends its delinquent accounts to collection agencies. Instead, they like to just sue first and ask questions later. Which is exactly what happened to my client. But unfortunately for all of us, Discover didn’t bother to submit any detailed documentation of their allegations. Did a contract exist? How were the alleged balances and finance charges calculated? There simply was not enough information for me to even figure out what was alleged.

This case involved a Fairhope, Alabama client who had been sued for over $8,000 on an alleged credit card account with Discover Bank. I went to trial for him and won a judgment in his favor.

Midland Funding Lawsuit Defeated – Mobile, Alabama Attorney Judson E. Crump

October 8, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

My client was sued by Midland Funding for a credit card account they said he once had with HSBC Bank Nevada, NA. I answered the complaint for him and the case was set for trial. The collection lawyer was there with a stack of documents they said proved their case. I objected to them, and normally I succeed in getting their evidence kicked out. But the judge let them into the record anyway. It didn’t matter.

Went to Trial against Midland Funding and won, again.

The judge considered their evidence, but found that it just wasn’t enough, so we won. I’ve represented consumers sued by Midland Funding 4 times this year and beaten them 4 times. Hopefully I can keep up this streak.

No lawyer can ever promise a victory in court or any result, for that matter. But if you live in Alabama and you have received notice of a lawsuit by Midland Funding or Midland Credit Management, then you may want to give me a call. 251.272.9148.

Who is Harbin LLC? Who is Revenue Maximization Consultants? – Alabama Debt Defense Attorney Judson E Crump

October 7, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump 4 Comments

If you’ve recently received a letter or certified mail from a company called “Harbin, LLC” or “Revenue Maximization Consultants,” you may be facing a lawsuit by a debt buyer.

Who are they?

Harbin, LLC calls itself a “buyer of distressed receivables.” In other words, it is a debt buyer. They claim to purchase past-due accounts and then they try to collect them. Revenue Maximization Consultants is a related business.

If you have been sued by either Harbin or Revenue Maximization Consultants in Mobile County District Court, you need to speak to a lawyer right away.

Cost of Chapter 13, Part 2: How Your Lawyer Calculates your Plan Payment – South Alabama Bankruptcy Lawyer Judson E. Crump

September 16, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

Part 2 – How Your Lawyer Calculates Your Chapter 13 Plan Payment

So just how does the lawyer arrive at that number? Now, as much as I love to warn people about the signs of a bad bankruptcy lawyer, there usually is no pressing need for the lawyer to explain to you how exactly your plan payment is calculated. It can be quite complicated, really, and your time would be better spent discussing whether or not bankruptcy is your best option in the first place, or who is going to with the National Title in the first post-BCS College Football Playoff.

First, a disclaimer: every case is different and there are other factors that go into the monthly payment. If you want to know what your bankruptcy should cost – then you need to talk to a good lawyer. Or two. Lawyers like to think that they’re special and that the calculation of a bankruptcy plan payment is some arcane craft that one can only comprehend after years of grueling training. That, of course, is not true. Most people don’t learn bankruptcy in law school, and even those that do spend most of their free time drinking beer and eating pizza at Mellow Mushroom or trying to romance hot undergrads. The truth is that it takes about a week for a young bankruptcy lawyer to learn how to calculate a plan payment. Less than that if they’re decent at math.

Basically, what your lawyer does is this:

Add up the amount of debt that must be paid: (Secured debt, Priority debt, and a percentage of unsecured debt) plus their attorney’s fees, and they come up with a subtotal. Multiply the subtotal by the trustee’s fee, which is a fixed portion of every single monthly payment. Then you have the total amount of money that must be paid into your plan. Divide that number by the total number of payments, and bingo. There’s your monthly payment amount.

Of course, determining what must be paid is the trick. But it isn’t magic at all.

Here’s the math formula:

{[P + S(1+rn) + Ud]Ft}/n

Where:

P = Priority Debt
S = Secured Debt
r = Till Interest (usually around 5%)
U = Unsecured Debt
d = Unsecured pro rata dividend
Ft = Trustee’s Fee (usually between 5 and 10%)

and d (the number of pennies per dollar that your unsecured creditors receives is the greater of Ie/Ut or An/Ut

Where Ie is your excess disposable income based on the means test and An is your nonexempt asset value.

Simple, right?

Don’t get lost in the symbols. When you use real facts, it is easy.

You have a 2007 Silverado worth $10,000, and you owe $10,000 on it. You owe $5,000 of taxes. You have $25,000 of unsecured debt, but unsecured debt is easy to deal with because it gets paid at anywhere between 0% and 100% of the amount owed, based on how much income and assets you have. Most debtors have few nonexempt assets and no excess disposable income, so the unsecured guys get paid like 3% of their claims. In this example, say the debtor also has $5,000 of nonexempt home equity.

So the calculation would go like this:

$10,000 (plus interest at 5%) = $11,320 of secured debt. This must be paid in full.

$5,000 of taxes = $5,000 of priority debt. This must be paid in full.

$25,000 of unsecured debt. This is not paid in full, but only in proportion to the total value of your nonexempt assets or excess income over the next 5 years. Unless your income is well above average for your family size, it will be your assets that drive the payment. Here, debtor has $5,000 in nonexempt assets, so he pays $5,000 to unsecured creditors, whether he has $10,000 of unsecured debt or $10,000,000 of unsecured debt, they share the same $5,000 pie.

Attorney’s fee = $3,000 (standard in Southern District of Alabama circa 2014). This must be paid in full.

Subtotal = $24,320.

Trustee’s fee here is 9%. $24,320 x 1.09 = $26,509. This is the total cost of Chapter 13.

$26,509/60 = $442. This is the monthly payment for a 5 year (60 months) Chapter 13 bankruptcy case.

See, I told you it wasn’t impossible. Now, it can be more complicated, and your situation is certainly going to differ from this hypothetical debtor, but the basic process is the same, and anyone can do it.

<<Prev. Page: The Cost of Chapter 13<<

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VIDEO: Loan Modification Scam Litigation – Alabama Foreclosure Attorney Judson E. Crump

September 12, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

You can do something about it. You must take action as soon as you can if you think that you or someone you love has been ripped off by a loan mod scams. You have rights that you may not even know about.

These scams are all over the place. I’ve seen at least three separate outfits that have tried to screw my clients. Most of them seem to be located in Florida, for some reason, but if they’re doing business here, we can absolutely take them to court here.

Even if they have “successfully” obtained a loan modification for you, they still may be breaking the law and harming you (without your knowledge) by committing bank fraud on your behalf. This is serious stuff. If you’re currently paying monthly fees to a “loan mod specialist” who hasn’t obtained a loan modification for you yet, then you need to stop paying them ASAP and ask for a full and immediate refund.

See, they’re not allowed to charge you a dime up front. And they’re also not allowed to instruct you to quit paying your mortgage.

Please don’t fall for these guys! Some examples I’ve seen that break the MARS rule:

Ocean Legal Group
Fresh Start “law firm”
Pinepoint law group

Notice a pattern? They all pretend to be lawyers, when they’re not.

Who is Calling Me: Valentine & Kebartas 2513005452 – Alabama FDCPA Lawyer Judson E Crump

September 9, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

Valentine & Kebartas Harassing Phone Calls from Local number (251)300-5452

So here’s a relatively new trick I’ve seen: out of state debt collectors using local cell numbers to call you. If you’re being hounded by debt collectors, you’ve probably learned to avoid 1-800 numbers and 1-888 numbers. But if you get a strange number with a 251 area code, you may think “What if it’s that girl I gave my number to last week?” and answer the phone. But it’s not a new romantic interest. Oh, no. It is a debt collector.

Valentine & Kebartas has been calling South Alabama residents using the phone number: 2513005452. That’s 251.300.5452.

But Valentine & Kebartas is NOT a local business. They’re not from Alabama. They’re from Massachusetts. Their principal place of business is at: 15 Union Street Lawrence , Massachusetts 01840.

Their website is www.vnkinc.com.

They have been sued for violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

They may call you and hang up when you answer. Then if you call back, a disembodied female voice asks you to enter YOUR phone number. If you don’t, it may try again. If you still don’t say anything, it may say “Thank you for calling Valentine and Kebartas.”

If you are being harassed by Valenting & Kebartas, call a REAL LOCAL FDCPA Attorney at 251.272.9148.

If someone promises to be able to reduce your Student Loan interest rate, they are scammers – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E. Crump

August 19, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

Great article by student loan guru and fellow NACA member Josh Cohen:

Student Loan Assistance Companies Sued

Long story short: as with the Foreclosure Rescue Scams and Debt Settlement Scams, the student debt crisis has generated a new breed of scumbag: Student Loan Assistance outfits.

Like their ancestors in the debt settlement and loan mod scams, the student loan assistance scams do several things that are evil:

1. They lie. You cannot change the interest rate on a student loan, no matter how hard you try.

2. They charge very high fees for doing nothing. For the hundreds or thousands of dollars they charge you, they don’t do anything for you but push you into consolidation – an option that you have anyway, and you can read about ad nauseum at www.studentaid.ed.gov.

3. They break the law. Particularly the CROA, when they claim to be able to help your credit.

If you’re having trouble with student loans, do your research first. Consolidation is nearly always available, but it isn’t always your best option. There are better ways to deal with your student loan debt, like IBR and ICR.

One of these days, I’ll write an article about just how screwed up the Department of Education is – they’re almost as bad as Capital One. Really. Obama should really be ashamed. Democrats claim to be out there to help the people, but good old Dept. of Ed. is hounding struggling students with debt collectors and charging gigantic and unearned fees and just all-round screwing people over. He doesn’t even have to actually change anything – the minute he proposes some student loan relief bill, House Republicans will kill the bill (however reasonable and helpful it may be) and blast him for being a Communist anyway, so why doesn’t he at least give it a shot? This is one I’ll never figure out.

Who is Ferry & Nicholas? Why you should not hire them. – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E Crump

July 28, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump Leave a Comment

If you have received a letter from a “firm” called “Ferry & Nicholas,” it means that you have been sued by a credit card company or debt collector. Ferry & Nicholas runs a clever little scheme. See, they’re not lawyers, which means that they don’t have to comply with the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct. Why does this matter? Because the Alabama Rules of Professional Conduct forbid lawyers from sending people letters until 7 days have passed since you were served with the lawsuit.

Now, I know full well that most bankruptcy lawyers don’t bother to comply with this rule – they just print the list of lawsuits from the court in their county and have their secretaries blast letters to every lawsuit debtor. And these letters tell you how great and easy and cheap and perfect-for-every-situation bankruptcy is, and that if you don’t file bankruptcy, you’re pretty much doomed to a life of decrepitude. Of course, that’s total bullshit, but that’s another issue for another day.

Ferry & Nicholas is a company that preys on people who don't know the legal system. You can hire a real lawyer to get you a better deal for less money. — Ferry & Nicholas is a company that preys on people who don’t know the legal system. You can hire a real lawyer to get you a better deal for less money.

Ferry & Nicholas, however, doesn’t even have to pretend to comply. So all of these people — who have no idea they’ve even been sued, and that they’re about to enter a precarious situation where it is very important to protect their legal rights, and who really need access to real legal advice about their situation — these people get introduced to the legal debt collection system by someone who is utterly unqualified to represent debtors and their interests.

Now, some may say “what’s the harm?” At least you’re getting an advance warning that the lawsuit is coming, right? Well, to the extent that some debtors are sophisticated people who understand how the court system works and know the risks of hiring a debt settlement factory to do a lawyer’s job, yes, there is no harm. But unfortunately, most people don’t know the legal system. And most people don’t know that Ferry & Nicholas cannot do a thing to stop Midland Funding or Portfolio Recovery Associates or LVNV Funding or whoever it is from taking a judgment against you.

So they don’t know that when they hire Ferry & Nicholas, the clock is still ticking on the deadline to answer the lawsuit. And in District or Small Claims Court, that deadline is only 14 days. In Circuit Court, the deadline is 30 days. And what happens if the deadline passes while Ferry & Nicholas is negotiating, or, as they call it, “mediating” your debt?

A default is entered against you. Which means that you’ve lost your lawsuit, which means that the creditor has utterly no motivation to settle with you. By contrast, you could spend the same amount of money hiring a real attorney, and either settle for a deep discount or beat the lawsuit completely.

I had a client who hired Ferry & Nicholas and they “successfully” settles a collection case for her. But unfortunately, Ferry & Nicholas didn’t do anything to make sure the collector stuck to the deal. And here’s the craziest part: they didn’t even get the deal in writing! Their ‘mediation’ was a telephone call they made with the collection lawyer – and the deal they struck? A 0% discount! They agreed to a judgment of the FULL AMOUNT OF THE LAWSUIT. YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN THAT WITHOUT HIRING ANYONE. With a decent lawyer, you can do wayyy better than that.

So if you get a letter from Ferry & Nicholas, throw it in the trash and get some real help.

A Tour of My Garden – Alabama Consumer Credit Attorney Judson E. Crump

June 11, 2014 by Attorney Judson E Crump 3 Comments

Sometimes people ask me what I do on the weekends. Or how I manage to feed my family on a consumer protection lawyer’s income. Both questions have the same answer. I have an awesome garden. To my friends and colleagues up north: Be Jealous. To my compatriots here on the Gulf Coast: look what we could be doing with all those boring green squares of centipede grass!

Porte d'jardin — Garden Gate covered in grapes and honeysuckle.

Start at the entrance: where there is a gate covered in grapes and honeysuckle. These grapes don’t produce until July & August. They’re red and white.

White Mountain Mint & Artemesia. Both grow wildly here on the Alabama Gulf Coast. Excellent groundcover. The mint is edible.

Onions, Garlic, & Shallots — Some of my onions, garlic, and shallots. Throw old onions and garlic cloves into the dirt in August, and this is what you get the next May.

Selma Suns — Sunflowers. We love them and they love us. And the birds.

Zinnias yellow — Zinnias. Easiest cutting flower to grow on earth.

White Echinacea — For some reason, my three year old son thinks this coneflower is ‘vanilla,’ and he picks them to make ice cream.

Blueberries. I have no idea why they’re so costly at the store. They grow like weeds around here.

Apples! In Baldwin County! The only thing good about a polar vortex.

3 types of Lettuc — 3 types of lettuce. All crispy and fresh. Water it a few hours ahead of time if you’re planning on making a salad.

Concord Grapes. They’ll be perfect around 4th of July. They should be called ‘Mobile Grapes,’ because I guarantee they grow better here than they do in Concord.

Heat Insulation — Natural Insulation from the blazing sun. Virginia Creeper.