Consumer complaint received 2025-08-23 00:00:00
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action — Sued you without properly notifying you of lawsuit
Company: ENCORE CAPITAL GROUP INC.
State: VA

Complaint narrative:
Midland Credit Management ( Acct XXXX. XXXX ) sued me without proper notification despite having my correct address and deliberately choosing improper service to obtain default judgments. This complaint involves their practice of forum shopping and violating proper legal procedures to deny consumers their right to defend themselves in court. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, Midland Credit Management sent me a debt validation letter to my correct current address in XXXX XXXX. This proves they had accurate contact information for me and were capable of reaching me at my actual residence. Nearly XXXX months later, on XX/XX/XXXX, Midland Credit Management filed lawsuits against me in XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX under Case No. XXXX, but chose to serve the legal papers in XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX 

The critical issue is that I have never been a resident of XXXX XXXX. They knew my correct address from their own XXXX validation letter but deliberately chose to serve me in the wrong location. This appears to be intentional forum shopping designed to ensure I would not receive proper notice of the lawsuits and could not appear to defend myself. On XX/XX/XXXX, default judgments were entered against me totaling over {$650.00} because I never received proper notification of the lawsuits. 

The validation letter dated XX/XX/XXXX, is smoking gun evidence that Midland Credit Management engaged in bad faith conduct. They successfully contacted me at my real address in XXXX but then chose to serve legal papers in a county where I never lived, ensuring I would not receive notice and could not defend myself. This conduct violates the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act regarding improper legal proceedings, the Fair Credit Reporting Act for reporting inaccurate information, due process rights under the Constitution, and XXXX court rules regarding proper service of process. 

As a result of their improper conduct, I now have default judgments on my credit reports affecting my credit score, and a third-party collector called XXXX is attempting collection based on these improperly obtained judgments. I have been unable to defend against the original claims due to lack of proper service and am now forced to file court motions to vacate judgments that were obtained through improper service. This has caused significant financial and emotional distress, and has damaged my creditworthiness based on judgments that were obtained illegally. 

This is a clear case of a debt collector deliberately circumventing proper legal procedures to obtain judgments without giving consumers proper notice and opportunity to defend themselves. I am currently filing motions in court to vacate these improperly obtained judgments and have supporting documentation including the validation letter dated XX/XX/XXXX, showing they had my correct address, court records showing service in the wrong county, drivers license records proving I never lived in XXXX XXXX, and default judgment records from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief