A plaintiff has filed a class-action lawsuit against a collection law firm, alleging the firm violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act when it sent the plaintiff a letter, which had the appearance of a court document and attempted to convince the plaintiff that her contesting of the debt should be terminated.
A copy of the complaint in the case of Carrasquillo v. Messerli & Kramer can be accessed by clicking here.
The defendant filed a lawsuit against the plaintiff in Wisconsin Small Claims Court attempting to recover an unpaid credit card debt. The plaintiff showed up for the Small Claims Court date, which was then adjourned for two months for further proceedings. In the interim, the defendant sent a letter to the plaintiff, “Order for Financial Disclosure and Financial Disclosure Statement,” which the defendant claims was related to the small claims court case. The plaintiffs allege that the letter is a very close facsimile to the form used in Wisconsin state courts that judgment debtors are required to fill out after a default judgment has been entered. The letter also claimed that a default judgment was entered on the day of the small claims court date, even though the case was adjourned for further proceedings.
The letter included a “judgment date” and included the signature of a Circuit Court Judge or Circuit Court Commissioner. The letter provided a 15-day window for the plaintiff to complete the form and return it to the defendant.
“Upon information and belief, Messerli sent [the letter] to make the consumer believe that judgment had already been entered, and that he or she is required to respond to [the letter] and provide the information requested in [the letter] to Messerli,” the plaintiff contends in the complaint.
The plaintiff accuses the defendant of violating Sections 1692e, 1692e(10), 1692e(13) and 1692f of the FDCPA and of violations of the Wisconsin Consumer Act. The plaintiff is seeking to include anyone else who received similar letters when a judgment had not yet been entered against them, which it estimates to be about 50 people.
