A Houston debt buyer who was fined $25 million after being convicted of improperly suing more than 900 individuals has requested a new trial. Joseph Onwuteaka claims that the jury extrapolated evidence it heard from just a few witnesses and the award was not supported by evidence that Onwuteaka or his firm violated any state law or statute.
The case centered around Onwuteaka allegedly purchasing debts and then filing lawsuits against those individuals who did not make payments on those debts. State law requires an individual suing another individual for an unpaid debt to do so either in the county in which the individual being sued resides, or the county in which the original loan documents were filed.
Of the lawsuits that Onwuteaka filed in Harris County, Texas, 900 of them were filed against individuals who neither lived in the county nor was Harris County where the original documents were signed. The suits were filed in Harris County, under the expectation that the defendants would not appear for their trials.
The lawyer representing Onwuteaka said the $25 million in penalties was excessive and that Onwuteaka does not have that kind of money.
