Consumer complaint received 2018-10-12
Company: ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC.
State: MS
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Sued you without properly notifying you of lawsuit

Complaint:
I was sued by XXXX XXXX back in XXXX and I only had four days to prepare. I was fine with that because I believed that I had prepared myself enough to beat the Judgement. I appeared in court and saw that there were quite a few people also being sued by this company. They had hired a lawyer from a law firm called XXXX XXXX XXXX from XXXX Tennessee. To my surprise this lawyer never presented any documents in court showing proof of the debts to the clients representing themselves or to the Judge and he was collecting funds from his XXXX XXXX. My turn came around and I felt I was asking the Lawyer for the correct items like proof of my bill, I asked him to show me the correct amount of my bill from the original creditor, I asked him to show me proof that he actually owned the rights to collect the bill and he could not show me any proof, he only said to me and the Judge that he could show us what he had on his XXXX XXXX which obviously was little to nothing because the Judge didn't even want to see it. Instead of the Judge dismissing the case she continued it and asked me to bring proof of the correct amount owed on the bill to the next hearing, meaning she wanted me to validate the debt for this debt collector who said that I owed him money and I was thinking to myself " Really '', now why would I help him validate a debt that he says I owe him? He claimed that he had a witness to the debt but obviously it was a robo signature from an employer that worked for XXXX XXXX. I felt as though it was a loosing case with this Judge so I settled with the Lawyer before the next hearing. As I checked the XXXX XXXX XXXX Website and I see that this company has 400 plus complaints and these people have gone through some of the same collection hassles that I went through with this company such as the late phone calls, calls at work, being threaten that they were sending a process server out to my job and even talking to my boss, the last step was the 4 day judgement notification and we get to court and he couldn't even produce the correct information and obviously was still favored by the judge and this is so unfair! I have never been to a court hearing before and it was sad for not only myself being taken advantage of but also the other individuals that was being sued by this Lawyer whom I think of now as the " XXXX XXXX Collector ''. These poor people had absolutely no idea of their rights and nobody to inform them of their rights, not even the judge! Obviously this Lawyer knew before coming to court that these people had no idea of what to ask for in court because he had not one shred of evidence on paper and when I asked to see all of this information he seemed quite stunned and confused as to why I would even ask for these documents and I was just as stunned that the Judge even continued the case for him to better prepare himself for the next hearing. XXXX XXXX who is owned by Encore Capital Group whom was sued b the AG of New York in XXXX for their un fair violations of consumers and was ordered to vacate more than 4,500 improperly obtained judgements totaling nearly 18 million dollars and had to pay XXXX XXXX dollars in penalties and cost. The AG also stated that they will continue to pursue debt collectors and lenders who improperly take advantage of courts and the hard working people of his state and as a result of this this the company only filed 526 lawsuits in New York in XXXX. I feel as though they only filed 526 law suits probably was because it was to expensive for them to buy the correct information that they needed in order to win a judgement and they could no longer harass and threaten the people of New York without facing serious consequences. Therefore they have move their unfair collection violations here to Mississippi. They are also using the same tactics to harass and threaten the people here in Mississippi and using our courts as an outlet to win their cases because they seemed to rule the court room and he won every judgement straight from his XXXX XXXX without any questioning from the Judge! I would like to see the people of Mississippi get a refund of their money back from these people and hopefully our AG will also vacate their judgements because the evidence that they are producing in court is evidence that they should not have been able to obtain judgements in the first place. I also hope that the AG WILL fine them for all of their violations and continue to protect the people of XXXX from these people. XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX is making billions of dollars from people who absolutely have no idea of how to protect themselves.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation