A May, 2012 class action lawsuit filed by Theresa Driscoll and others has just been moved to Federal court. The case was filed against Freedom Debt Relief, Freedom Financial Network, Debtmerica, Global Client Solutions, Andrew Houser, and Bradford Stroh.
The case claims the Defendants violated the Illinois Debt Settlement Consumer Protection Act {“IDSCPA”) and Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act (ICFA”).
The suit alleges that despite promises of reducing consumers’ debt by 40 to 60 percent and the help consumer to become debt free in as little as 24-36 months the results were something other. The suit states, “Defendants were typically unable to negotiate any reduction in the amount owed, much less a substantial reduction, and were unable to leave customers debt-free in 24 to 36 months. Instead the consumers’ failure to make payments or respond to their creditors’ demands only served to increase the amount of debt owed due to late fees and interest charges. Defendants’ DSP simply and outrageously redirected consumers’ scarce financial resources from payment of their debts to payment of Defendants’ exorbitant and unearned monthly fees.”
The case is an example of how others associated with the Defendants can get named and dragged in to the case. As the case states, “On or about March 24, 2010, Sandy Clark, identified as an “IAPDA Certified Debt Specialist” and an employee and/or authorized agent of Defendants, e-mailed Plaintiff back and told her that Debtmerica could “dramatically” lower Plaintiff’s unsecured debt and could help Plaintiff “become debt free in as little as 24-36 months.”
The program agent latter told the Plaintiff her $14,244 debt would be cut down to $9,805.
If you would like to read the full complaint you can do so here. The filing moving this to Federal court can be read here.
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Debtmerica deserves to be in this hot water. We were pressured to enroll in their program a year ago and were sued by creditors within three months. You can do debt settlement/debt reduction yourself and if necessary, hire an attorney. Debtmerica lied to us, took our money and left us with more worries after the fact. The rep that enrolled us was gone within weeks and of course, the management was of no help and avoided all of our phone calls. We live in Northern California or we would have driving down to their Orange County/Santa Ana office and confronted them. People told us to sue them for the mess they got us into and with their high fees and hidden costs, you do not end up saving that much. Please do yourself a favor and do your homework and go with a local company if you can. LATEST NEWS: Debtmerica is not sister-company to “Optima Tax Relief” for people with income tax debt. So what they are basically going to do is cause more people MORE serious problems: last time I heard the Federal Government is more aggressive than credit card companies and banks. Innocent people will be hurt and lose their homes and have their wages garnished because Optima Tax Relief will make promises to them and have them blind-sided !!! Buyer Beware…..do your homework.
Debtmerica is terrible and takes advantage of people !!! I worked there for six months and it was six months of hell listening to all the reps lie to people who were upside down with credit card debt. They would tell them they could cut the debt in half and NOT tell them they were likely to be sued by all of the creditors. As far as I am concerned, the owners are criminals, the manager of the office, Jarrod, was like a Nazi Soldier, pressuring the reps to enroll clients that had no business being enrolled in these programs. I am glad to see this particular client take this to the limit and I hope she is awarded a lot of money. Debtmerica should be added to the list of these debt settlement companies that need to be shut down NOW.