Suing Collection Agencies – 1 – Know who serves the collector with the complaint.

Anyone not affiliated with the case may serve the bureau, but you are responsible for having the complaint served. Once you file, the complaint has to be served right away, and proof of delivery must be filed with the court 10 days from the court hearing date. You can use a sheriff, a third – party not involved in the case, or a process server. You can also send it by mail with a certified return receipt. When mailing, make sure you ask for restrictive delivery, meaning a register agent for the company needs to sign for the complaint and check with your court for serving procedures.

Suing Collection Agencies – 2 – Know how to find a register agent (a representative of the company) for the collection agency.

Go to the Secretary of State website where the company is based, and do a name search. If the company is out of state, then you need to look for their register agent in your state. Once you find the agent, you can have them served with the notice of complaint. Do a search on the Better Business Bureau website and Google for resident agent to locate the agent of the business?

Suing Collection Agencies – 3 – Know how to prepare for the trial.

You can prepare your evidence by getting a copy of the laws, outlining your argument, and learning what the collector may present at the day of court. Thoroughly organize and study your evidence. You will need to prep your witnesses, put your recordings in order, review your journal of notes from the collector, pull your phone records, and review any medical records for proof of emotional distress. Review the laws that were violated and take a highlighted copy with you to court for the judge to review. Outline the events that took place step-by-step. You can even practice presenting your argument to the judge in front of a mirror.

Suing Collection Agencies – 4 – Know what goes on in the hearing.

You should arrive early and dress professional, as there will be others in the court also trying their cases. The clerk will call the role from the docket to see who is there. If only the plaintiff is present (meaning you), the judge will issue a default judgment awarding you the case automatically. If the defendant ( collection agency) is the only person to show up, the case will be dismissed. The judge will ask the parties to try in settle their matter with a mediator waiting outside in the hallway. If a settlement is unsuccessful, your case will be heard in order. When your case is called, you and the defendant will present arguments to the judge, and after hearing both sides of the story, the judge will deliver a decision right away or later by mail.

Suing Collection Agencies – 5 – Know what happens if I don’t win the case? Know if you risk losing anything.

If you don’t win your case, you may have to pay the defendant’s attorney fees if the small claims court in your area allows those fees to be collected from the defendant (the company you are suing), so check with the small claims court about this issue before filing your case. Furthermore, you will lose your filing fee, and any money you used to bring the case to court. In addition, the defendant can try to collect any fees, they accumulated trying to defend the case against you.

Suing Collection Agencies – 6 – Know if you lose, will any fees be added to your negative account balance.

No. There will be no additional fees added to your balance, unless the original contract you signed with the creditor allows for legal fees to be collected. Read through your contract before taking your collector to court to better understand what they can collect if you lose the case. Now if you are suing the creditor bureau, then their general fees to defend against the suit will apply in this situation.

Being prepared for small claims court is a big factor on how your case will turn out. So pay attention to the six tips mentioned in this article before you enter the legal arena. Now that you are empowered with more information, go out there, and take action.

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‘Companies that promise they are able to scrub your credit reports of accurate, negative information for a fee are lying – plain and simple,’ said Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. ‘Under federal law, accurate, negative information can be reported for up to seven years, and some bankruptcies can be reported for up to 10 years.’

In response to thousands of complaints from consumers throughout the nation, the FTC launched ‘Operation Clean Sweep’ with 24 state agencies in 22 states. In the cases announced today, the Commission charged seven operations with violating the FTC Act and the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) by making false and misleading statements, such as claiming they can substantially improve consumers’ credit reports by removing accurate, negative information from their credit reports. The agency also alleged that the defendants violated the CROA by charging an advance fee for credit repair services. The 26 state actions include alleged violations of state laws and the CROA.

According to complaints filed by the FTC:

Nationwide Credit Services, Inc. and James R. Dooley,

Clean Credit Report Services, Inc., Ricardo A. Miranda, Daniel R. Miranda, and Ruthy Villabona

Successful Credit Service Corporation, also doing business as Success Credit Services, and Tracy Ballard, also known as Tracy Ballard-Straughn

Advantage Credit Repair LLC and Mark D. Solomon

RCA Credit Services, LLC, Rick Lee Crosby, Jr., and Brady Wellington

Latrese & Kevin Enterprises, Inc., also d/b/a Hargrave & Associates Financial Solutions, Latrese Hargrave, also known as Latrese V. Williams, and Kevin Hargrave, Sr

ACE Group, Inc., also d/b/a as American Credit Experts, Inc., The Ace Group, Inc., The Ace Group, and ACE; Legal Credit Repair Center, Inc., also d/b/a LCRC, Michael Singer, Melvin Kessler, and Gerald Roth

Advice for Consumers

How can you avoid turning credit repair into credit despair? Here are a few suggestions:

• Avoid any company that wants you to pay for credit repair services before they provide any services. It is against the law.
• Avoid any credit repair company that will not tell you your legal rights and what you can do, yourself, for free.
• Avoid any credit repair company that tells you not to contact a credit reporting company directly.
• Avoid any credit repair company that advises you to dispute all of the information in your credit report.
• Avoid any company that suggests creating a ‘new’ credit identity – and then, a new credit report – by applying for an Employer Identification Number to use instead of your Social Security number. That is against the law. If you follow illegal advice and commit fraud, you also may be subject to prosecution.

The FTC said it would reimpose the higher number, which spokesman said accounts for the gross revenue of the business, if the three defendants fail to pay the $5,000 or they lied about their financial conditions.


Ace Group, Inc., also known as American Credit Experts, Inc., The Ace Group, Inc., The Ace Group, and ACE; and Legal Credit Repair Center, Inc. were the subject of a federal lawsuit filed late last year by the FTC. Also cited were principals Michael Singer, Gerald Roth and Melvin Kessler.


The FTC said they told consumers they could get negative entries on their credit reports removed and charged $60 upfront and then another $60 a month thereafter. Dispute letters sent by the company didn’t achieve the promised result, the FTC said.

The men agreed to stop collecting money from people who had signed up for their services and to protect their customers’ identities as they dispose of the personal and financial information that had been collected. Two separate judgments were filed in the case: One that covered Singer and Roth and the other on Kessler, who filed for protection under federal bankruptcy laws.

The FTC warns consumers that using such services isn’t the solution to credit problems. The commission offers advice on its web site on what consumers with credit problems can do to help their situations. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has some additional information on avoid debt elimination scams.

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