Stop Frivolous Lawsuits
Stop Frivolous Lawsuits
I first heard about this issue early on in my career.
I was working mainly with personal injury, wrongful death, and fraud cases (I still do) — I heard all about frivolous lawsuits need to stop.
This issue has gotten a lot of publicity from places like the Business Council, Chamber of Commerce, etc. They’ll say things like, “These lawsuits are ridiculous! They’re driving up the cost of doing business!” etc.
To their credit, there is a little bit of truth in what they say.
Frivolous lawsuits are a pain, and they should be done away with because they do nothing good for anyone.
Now, the truth of the matter is they view any lawsuit filed by a consumer against a company frivolous, but if a business sues a consumer or another business, they don’t see it that way.
However, no one is talking about the many, many, cases filed by various companies.
I’ve been watching, and I’ve been listening to these outcries for a while now.
One major thing that has seemed odd to me is that no one talks about the various debt collection agencies that file frivolous lawsuits all the time.
I’m talking about Asset Acceptance, Cavalry, LVNV, Midland, Portfolio, etc. The so called debt buyers.
If you look at a year long timeline, you’ll see that combined these debt collection companies often file over 10,000 lawsuits a year.
That is too many.
Too many bogus lawsuits that are filed just to get a quick settlement with no proof that the lawsuit is legitimate.
Where’s the Business Council?
Where’s the Chamber of Commerce when these companies file these lawsuits?
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Now, there are a few possibilities here.
Maybe they don’t know about these lawsuits.
I find this hard to believe, since they do all of these studies, analyze data, and splice it up however they like.
However, it is a possibility that they don’t know.
Well, not really.
The alternative to this possibility isn’t so pretty.
Maybe they have seen and heard about these 10,000 lawsuits with their own eyes.
Maybe they’ve seen these cases in the courtrooms.
But they don’t care.
They don’t care about these 10,000 lawsuits because it doesn’t fit their narrative.
Maybe this outcry isn’t really about frivolous lawsuits being filed.
Maybe their concern is that they want to make it too difficult for consumers to sue businesses.
Now, they won’t get on TV and say that.
They won’t outright say it.
They won’t even write an editorial saying that they want to make it more difficult for consumers.
You can’t really come out and say, “To consumers who have been cheated and injured: we don’t want you to recover any damages.”
Think about the massive fraud at Wells Fargo opening millions of fraudulent accounts. Kind of hard for the Chamber of Commerce to say, “It is wrong for consumers to sue Wells Fargo for this.” But that’s how they feel.
So back to these bogus debt buyer cases.
Why aren’t they talking about these cases?
I asked this question 5-6 years ago, and I still don’t have any answer from them.
I think they care more about uneven playing fields than frivolous lawsuits.
Their focus is on making it harder for consumers to sue, not eliminating frivolous lawsuits.
These guys don’t want to play fair.
They want businesses to have the upper hand when they deal with consumers.
What are your thoughts? Leave a comment below!
I want to know what you think about this.
If you have any questions…
If you’re dealing with a debt collector and you have any questions, feel free to contact us.
You can reach us by phone at 1-205-879-2447, or you can fill out a contact form and we will get in touch with you quickly.
We would be more than happy to answer your questions and help you figure out the best course of action.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!
PS: Here are some resources about debt buyer lawsuits.
Your five options when sued — very important you understand these.
Your time limits to answer when sued.
A detailed overview of being sued in Alabama district or small claims court — where most of these frivolous cases are filed.