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Showing Original Post only (View all)Woman wins $83 million in lawsuit against debt collector [View all]
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/credit/woman-wins-dollar83-million-in-lawsuit-against-debt-collector/ar-BBjXI0E?ocid=ansMoneymag11A Missouri jury ordered a debt buyer to pay nearly $83 million to a Kansas City woman it pursued for a $1,000 credit card bill she didnt owe, NPR affiliate KCUR reports. The jury found Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC guilty of violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, for which it will pay $250,000 in damages, as well as maliciously prosecuting the woman, Maria Guadalupe Mejia, over the debt that did not belong to her. For the malicious prosecution, the jury awarded Mejia $82,990,000 in punitive damages.
PRA Group Inc., which owns Portfolio Recovery Associates, sent an email statement to Credit.com:
This outlandish verdict defies all common sense, wrote spokesman Michael McKeon. We hope and expect the judge will set aside this inappropriate award, and we plan to file motions to make that request formally in the near term. Any fair reading of the facts of this case makes plain that a verdict of this size is not justice by any means, and cannot stand.
Portfolio Recovery, one of the nations largest debt buyers, sued Mejia in February 2013 over the credit card debt, though the actual debtor turned out to be a man in Kansas City, Kansas, with a name similar to Mejias. The company pursued Mejia for the debt for 15 months after she first received notice of the lawsuit. In a written statement to KCUR, Mejia said, The lawsuit terrified me.
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a lawsuit never occurred to me either, but it helped when the do-not-call list was created.
Voice for Peace
May 2015
#23
You can file a challeng for free. If there is no response from the company that filed, it comes off.
Thor_MN
May 2015
#50
Not nearly enough. They should have to shed some blood, painfully, as well. n/t
jtuck004
May 2015
#14
you have to understand --the judgment will, almost certainly, be reduced. and it is very unlikely
niyad
May 2015
#20
No, you're not alone. The company would actually suffer more from a smaller verdict.
Jim Lane
May 2015
#24
Oh Fuck No! This particular company makes this a practice. This is how they operate.
Glassunion
May 2015
#37
You have evidentially never been hounded bullied harassed and slandered by one of these parasite cos.
Vincardog
May 2015
#52
It's about 10% of their annual revenue. Which is probably where the number came from. (nt)
jeff47
May 2015
#49
Judges and Juries should be given the ability to shutter these criminal enterprises.
Dont call me Shirley
May 2015
#40