When a debtor files for bankrutpcy, I know enough to be mildly dangerous. However, when the bankruptcy gets messy, complicated and/or ugly, I bring in other counsel like Mark Shapiro, Tracy Clark or Stuart Gold. These guys are, as far as I am concerned, absolute gurus in bankruptcy. It’s kinda funny that on some cases, […]

Law.com, one of my favorite blogs reports about a Federal District court case In July 2000, Upton Cohen & Slamowitz in Woodbury, N.Y., had sent a letter to plaintiff Arthur Miller seeking payment of $1,676 he had charged to a Lord & Taylor credit card. The letter, signed by Mitchell Slamowitz, stated that the firm […]

My neighbor got into a dispute with Detroit Edison (“DTE”). They had sent him a bill that he thought was outrageous ($565 for digging a hole in his yard and repairing some cable). My hard headed neighbor refused to pay the bill. I talked him into offering to pay half of it since if he […]

Today, I was hired by a new client to collect a judgment that he obtained against a contractor. Nothing real unusual about this situation except that the client is fairly young man. I would say in his late 20s. He was in Iraq protecting our country when some sleaze bag contractor took advantage of his […]

USA Today reports that the Internal Revenue Service has begun its tax recovery program with private debt collectors. The IRS states that it is doing all that it can to protect taxpayer rights and privacy. However, one should note that the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, an act designed to curb such abuses, does NOT […]

The Buffalo News reports that the Erie County Bar Association president, Stephen Lamantia believes that special rules should be established for collection attorneys. He seems to believe that debt collection attorneys are giving the bar association a bad name. He cites examples of non lawyer debt collectors using scare tactics to collect balances due from […]

I freely acknowledge that self promotion on a blog is not appreciated by readers. However, I have decided to break that rule this time because it is important for attorneys and client to know when a collection attorney’s services are necessary. We just collected a $192,000 judgment that we received in April 2006. The judgment […]

An interesting article in today’s Credit and Collection Website details how a name partner at a prominent law firm was hit with a jury verdict of $2.9 million for collection tactics that the jury did not like. Bernard Plechaty, 82, of Fort Lauderdaule, Fla., filed the lawsuit, claiming that Bob Weltman’s collection tactics (and presumably […]