Consumer Statement:
I first spoke with World Law Jan 27th, 2012 but did not cancel realizing how scammed I was until July. WL was to negotiate my debts, I paid them $4936.66 since Feb. They did zero negotiations, questionable & unethical behavior, false statements, scam Account #224330, paid $806.11 for 6 months begin February, cancelled before August payment, total $4936.66.
I questioned them from the beginning but they smoothed over every question and I was gullible to stay too long. First they ran my credit check through Texas Nissan of Grapevine, that has to be fraudulent. I never received the bundled legal services.
They continually mentioned insolvency and pre-bankruptcy screening and analysis and things I never agreed to or wanted. I repeatedly asked if they had sent my creditors a letter, and that I wanted a copy, I finally received a copy on July 17th.
Their contract says their debt negotiations and settlement services would be “prompt and efficiently performed” and that is a lie. No services were performed for me during the 6 months. They involved so many people (probably to add to the confusion) and none of them knew what the other one did so I repeated the same questions every time.
I even received emails from one person using another person’s email address, which I questioned and again was brushed off. I quote WL “You have a team of litigation specialists diligently working on your behalf as well as a negotiations team that will strive to utilize your pending litigation to secure lower settlement offers” and yet by their own admission nothing had been done except the initial letter to the creditors.
One of my creditors summoned me to appear in court on July 19th in Richmond VA which was 322 miles from my home. When I notified WL it took eight days for me to get a response that was a poorly written form document and not anything personal to my situation.
It was supposedly from an attorney but had misspellings and was so poorly written I doubt any attorney would let that go out of his office. It was days from my court appearance so I signed their documents and followed their instructions to file with the court.
I received a set of instructions 2 days before court telling me how to respond to the judge. I questioned that the document I filed and the set of instructions stated that I was disputing the charge on the grounds that I did not owe the money as alleged. That was a lie.
I asked the ‘so called attorney’ who called me at 7PM the night before court as well as many of the litigation personnel how I could say that because I knew I owed it I was asking for relief or reduction.
They brushed it off like a minor technicality, they also were wanting me to say I had not received documents from the creditor that I had asked for and that was a lie. I told them I would not lie to the judge under oath.
The only document I received from the “attorney” the day before court appearance held the disclaimer that “I am a lawyer, but I am not your lawyer … this communication is not intended as legal advice, and no attorney client relationship results. Please consult your own attorney for legal advice or discuss with your assigned attorney at World Law for further information.”
And yet I had never been assigned an attorney that I knew of – if I had been why did that attorney not contact me? I was alone without any support or truth from WL. When I went to court, outside the courtroom I met the rep for the creditor that summoned me, he told me that they never would deal with WL and WL knew that, he also told me if we went into court I would pay an additional 33-1/3% of the debt owed as attorney fees and court costs, I was going deeper not getting out.
I immediately cancelled with WL and begun working directly with my creditors. I am in so deep now and my credit is ruined beyond measure thanks to WL. If they repay me I might be able to negotiate to at least get back in good graces with my creditors and avoid going back to court or bankruptcy. Fraud is spelled ‘WorldLaw’.
WL personnel that I spoke with during 6 months – not all inclusive- William Miskel, Laura Davis, Valerie Sneed, Dana Barry, Natalie Bradford, Samantha Schroeder, Andrea Lujan, Ray Brock, Daniel Brazell, Sue Miller, Jay Carlin. I requested refund July 26th.
Account Number: 224330 I have documentation for the above and MORE.
Consumer Action Taken:
July 26th, I cancelled my relationship with World Law and sent them an email and certified return receipt written letter with details of how I felt they had not upheld their part of the ‘contract’ and requested a refund by August 17th or I would write to the BBB, Attny General, Federal Trade Comm., state bar, etc. A rep (Randy Lepley) from Orion Processing contacted me on July 27th – a negotiator between us but I believe he also works for them. He requested documentation of all the events, which I sent July 28th, he spoke as if they would settle by making monthly payments back to me. I wrote back to him telling him I wanted refunded in one payment and have not heard back since.
Date This Problem Happened: January 27, 2012
State You Live in: Tennessee
Race/Ethnicity: White
Age Range: 51-65
Total Amount of Fee Paid: $4,836.66
Company Name: World Law Debt
Do You Have a Question You'd Like Help With? Contact Debt Coach Damon Day. Click here to reach Damon.
Company Address:
2201 Donley Dr.
Ste 250
Austin, TX 78758
Company Telephone Number: 866-577-6102
Website of Company: worldlawdebt.com
Some of the Additional Consumer Documentation Provided With Complaint:
- July 27, 2012 emailed the complaint. Received confirmation on same day from Global Client Solutions that they received and forwarded to World Law. Have not received confirmation or any response from World Law.
From: alannab@globalclientsolutions.com
CC: alannab@globalclientsolutions.com
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 11:26:48 -0500Subject: Received Complaint
Good Morning,
We are in receipt of your complaint in regards to your Global Client Solutions Account.
We have forwarded your complaint to your Debt Settlement Company – World Law Debt. Please keep in mind, Global Client Solutions is simply a payment processing center for Debt Settlement companies. Please advise if we can be of further assistance.
Thank You,
Alanna R. Bosquez – Consumer Complaints Specialist
4500 South 129th East Avenue, Suite 175
Tulsa, Oklahoma 74134
tel 866-994-8927| fax 866.355.8228To: clientservices@worldlawprocessing.com; customersupport@globalclientsolutions.com;
pcbinternet@plainscapital.comSubject: World Law Complaint
Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2012 00:09:51 -0400Attached is a copy of my complaint against World Law and its “process” and those involved in the process – a paper copy has been sent to you via certified mail with return receipt. Please read fully.
I am thanking you in advance for giving this matter your prompt attention. I trust it can be resolved easily and without me filing further complaints. If I am not issued a full refund by Friday, August 17, 2012, ($4,836.66) I plan to send a copy of this complaint, along with full documentation, to Robert Cooper, Jr. (TN Attorney General), Gregg Abbott (Texas Attorney General), the Better Business Bureau of both Tennessee and Texas, and the Federal Trade Commission. I will also file a complaint with the Texas state bar association and the consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Financial Fraud Enforcement Task Force and file an online scam report. I will be speaking to an attorney to find out what my options are to recover damages for World Law’s failure to perform under the contract I signed and find out what damages can be collected for the undue stresses and costs related to this failure.
- July 18, 2012 I receive this “response” from Sue Miller – she copies Jay Strike Carlin (the
lawyer who would call me). So he did not prepare this response…it is a rote formula and not personal per case. Note: I left home at 5:30AM to travel to Richmond to file my response so I did not see this email until I had arrived, filed and checked into my hotel that afternoon.Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2012 06:25:17 -0400
Subject: Fwd:
From: attorneys17@worldlawdirect.com
CC: jaystrike3@yahoo.comFor a first appearance in VA, 2 sentences only:
1) I am disputing the debt.
2) I have filed my answer.[If you have a decision-making hearing (trial), or other type of hearing, 2 sentences will be added when
discussed with you.]For a Pre-trial, Case Management or Status Conference in your situation, you normally only have to say 2 or 3 sentences!! You can even print or write them out and read them!
The sentences are below colored blue. Our lawyers will also discuss this with you. It is often good to write them down and carry them in to court in case you get distracted. You can even say I have looked at everything and I have just 2 points and would like to read them—and then read them. The magistrate will be fine with that.
____The pre-trial conference in a credit card case is mostly just a check-in. A chance for both sides to come together. It is normally very short–a few minutes.
If the Plaintiff has not provided all documents on the account, it is a good time to remind them you have not received all documents.
{{When a plaintiff files a credit card case they normally need to provide the original account agreement signed by you, copies of all billing statements from the beginning to the end, notices of all interest rate changes and notices of all account terms changes, a payment ledger showing what was paid to principal and what was paid to interest etc. The law requires this but also when you filed your answer, your answer also said that you do not just assume and agree and admit that everything the plaintiff says is correct, you want to please see all the documentation on the account}}
If the plaintiff has not provided all documents, the court normally will eventually dismiss the case and the debt–you would pay nothing. That happens about 20% of the time in our clients’ cases.
If the plaintiff does provide all documents, our audit team will review all documents for over 30 points of compliance, and there are almost always errors in the account. Sometimes the errors are large and sometimes small, but even a 10 dollar error from 5 years ago can be worth 300 dollars today with all that interest being charged.
If the plaintiff has provided all documents you can tell them you are reviewing all documents but have not made any decisions at this point.
If the plaintiff makes a settlement offer, you can tell them you would seriously consider the offer but you need a day or two to consider it and to have professionals advise you.
So normally you have to only say two sentences. Write the sentences out and take them with you (or print this).
1–I have asked many times for the documentation on this account, and the plaintiff has failed to provide any substantial documentation.
and 2—I believe the plaintiff should provide the documents or the case should be dismissed.
ORIf the plaintiff has provided all or very substantial documentation listed above then the 2 sentences are:
1–the plaintiff has recently provided substantial account documentation as requested and I am still reviewing the documentation.
and 2– I cannot make any further decisions until I am done reviewing the documents. There should normally not be any further questions but if a magistrate or some party tries to ask you more questions, you can say:
3– I cannot make any further decisions until I have reviewed all the account documentation.
You are not required to go into any further detail.
Most pretrial conferences in credit card cases are just a few minutes long. A new date will be set into the future. The vast majority of cases settle at some point in the process.
Also remember, we can all Relax–Nothing is final and Nothing is critical here. We can always file new motions, take other steps etc., so there is no way to make any real mistake.
Regards, Sue Miller
Phone – 866 827 4050
WORLD Law Direct
http://worldlawdirect.com - July 18, 2012 Email from Jay Strike Carlin which was the same as I got from sue Miller except with a disclaimer that he is a lawyer but not mine and this is not legal advice. He called me that evening and I specifically asked him
· First appearance and pre-trial mean I have to do this again? 322 mile journey one way?
· How can I dispute the debt saying that I don’t owe it when I do (see actual document World Law had me file as my response) – lie #1
· I have not asked for documents so how can I say I have and that have not given them to me? – lie#2Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2012 03:32:15 -0700
From: jaystrike3@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: Hearing 7-19-12 10AMI believe that you have received the email found below from the legal department at World Law concerning your hearing scheduled for 7-19-12 in Virginia. Please review the contents of the email and if you have questions about the hearing process, I will be able to address those issues with you later today.
Again I will try to call you to further discuss or if you wish to pose the questions via email, I will respond to your inquiry.
Thank you,
Jay Strike Carlin, Esquire
World LawDisclaimer : I am a lawyer, but I am not your lawyer (unless you have been in my office and signed a contract, otherwise you are a client of World Law. This communication is not intended as legal advice, and no attorney client relationship results. Please consult your own attorney for legal advice or discuss with your assigned attorney at World Law for further information.
- Extra payments will not be helpful.
From: lauradavis@worldlawprocessing.com
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2012 09:14:36 -0500Hi. No sending payment will back track things rather than expedite them. We will make sure each of you creditors have a copy of our Notice of Attorney Representation on file and that should help with the calls.
—- Original Message —-
To: valeriesneed@worldlawprocessing.com, lauradavis@worldlawprocessing.com
Sent:Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:56:31 -0400Dear Valerie and Laura,
I am glad to know there is a number that I can give to the creditors now.
The only one that has called so far is SB1FCU. They call every 2 or 3 days from an unknown number 000-000-0000 or such. The only number I have is one I called when I needed to check on my account or something before all this (800-806-9465). So I don’t know if it is the one you would call or not. I received the first delinquent notice on 3/7 and this one 3/12 (attached) – it has an assist/recovery number on it. I asked in a previous email, 1) can I get a copy of the attorney documents that will be sent to the creditors and 2) if I send an extra payment to you all will it expedite things any?
-
To: andrealujan@worldlawprocessing.com
CC: lauradavis@worldlawprocessing.comDate: Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:01:21 -0400
I sent this email Tuesday and no response as yet and I still have not heard from the attorney – I leave early Wednesday morning to go to Richmond VA for court on Thursday.
To: andrealujan@worldlawprocessing.com
CC: lauradavis@worldlawprocessing.comDate: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 16:43:07 -0400
Dear Natalie – you are using Andrea Lujan’s email but you say you are my legal assistant – do you not have an email address? Your email is signed by Andrea as well. Who am I communicating with? I am more confused. Anyway, I had been sending my statements via email (as they are electronic) not fax – I do not have a fax machine – I hope this is still acceptable. I am forwarding you the email I sent to Laura.
Do I not send to Laura any more?
You say you are here to negotiate my account but yet you aren’t listening to me – or everything is just form letters and not real time assistance. We discussed on the phone less than an hour ago – and it is in my email that you received and supposedly read – that I have already sent the certified letter to the plaintiff – they did not include their attorney information so I could not send to an attorney. And we discussed that I can not file at the Richmond court house until the day before the court date unless I drive 5-1/2 hours to Richmond to do so and you agreed it was OK to wait. Now in your response you just sent me you tell me to do these things. It is as if we had not spoken about it already.
I feel I am out here alone being fed to the wolves. I am beginning to not trust what you all are doing. I ask you all to copy me and you don’t but I will continue to send you information and will update you after next Thursday.
You send me best wishes for a wonderful rest of the week but what I would really like is the information I request and not pat answers or form letters.
- The response was a form filled in with my information it was not “prepared” and the litigation team was not diligently working n0r had the negotiation team done anything.
From: danabarry@worldlawprocessing.com
Subject: World Law Group – we have received your summons
Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2012 12:18:31 -0500A Message from World Law Processing
_______________________________________________________________________________The purpose of this message is to confirm that we have received the summons you sent regarding your account(s) currently in litigation. Your summons will be processed and sent to the attorneys. The attorneys will then prepare what is called a response that you will need to file with the court. The response will be sent to you via email and a member of our litigation department will call shortly thereafter to verify that you received it, instruct you on how to file it, and answer any questions you may have pertaining to the litigation process.
As always, you are encouraged to contact your legal assistant to discuss any questions or concerns you may have regarding your program and your litigation account(s). We understand that litigation can seem daunting but keep in mind that you have a team of litigation specialists diligently working on your behalf as well as, a negotiations team that will strive to utilize your pending litigation to secure lower settlement offers from your other creditors. Rest assured that World Law Group has the expertise and resources to see you through this stressful situation.
Legal Assistant Team
World Law Processing
877-220-3295 (Toll-Free)
866-227-6129 (Fax)
clientservices@worldlawprocessing.com
—
Sincerely,
Dana Barry
Litigation Clerk
Phone: 877-220-3295
Fax: 866-206-8508
World Law Processing 
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I am a former debt negotiator for a debt settlement company and still recovering from the misery of dealing with unhappy clients who were angry at everyone and just didn’t know where to complain.
The industry sucks. Clients are getting bullied by the banks and being told the bank does not settle while they turn around and make settlement every single day. Government Agencies were investigating the company because clients panic and make complaints. Even with all that we were consistently getting settlements for clients under 37%.
What I was able to learn in over two years is that, if you sign a 36 month plan, it will take almost half that to start seeing results. The banks are not in the business of giving away money. We would make a lump sum offer to the bank and sometimes that required savings of over 12 months to get to number they would start negotiations with. The way it would usually work (at least as far as last year) is we would have to wait at least 6 months until the debt was sold to a 3rd party collecter, usually for 10 cents on the dollar. At that time negotiations would begin if the client had savings. There’s the other problem. For clients with small payments but large debts, we would have to wait as long as 12 months before we could make any settlements.
Here’s the interesting part. We would always get the best settlements for clients that would give us the hardest time. My theory is that if a bank rep was able to catch them on the phone, they would do the same to the bank rep. The meaner the client, the lower the settlement. Usually in the 20% area.
Here’s what else I learned. The nicest clients would always get sued within 6 months. Any client that would speak to the bank directly or would tell them that they had a company managing their debts or worst case of all, that they were in a debt settlement program would get sued. The bank is not your friend. You’re friend did not promise you 9% interest and then jack up the rate to 24%.
It sounds like World Law has a whole kind of different mess going on. I’d say they’re under staffed from what I’m reading on this site.
If I almost made sense and will now sound like a loon, I apologize. The credit card industry is a scam. The name of the game is not to lend out money for a nominal fee. The name of the game is to get the client to default and raise their rates to as high as the market will allow. In some areas, it is 34%. Bank of America was caught sending out statements in envelopes without their logo on it in hopes that people would think it’s junk mail and throw it aside.
Here’s where debt settlement works best. If you do not own a home and do not work on a W-2 and you are a mean son of a bitch, you will be able to negotiate your own debt for 30% or less. If you do not have one of these fortunate dispositions, hire a professional.
Hello Deep Throat,
I agree with some of what you said, but if I may interject something. I know you said you were a negotiator and not on the sales side.
It sounds like a lot of the problems you are blaming on the clients ie. payments too small for the amount of debt, government agencies investigating because clients were panicking etc.
These problems arise because of the sales process. Meaning your company and almost all settlement companies are enrolling the wrong people and certainly not fully explaining to the client what is actually going to be happening. If all of your clients fully understood what was being sold, and thoroughly explored all other options, then you would not get very many “panicky” clients complaining and you would not have, or should not have clients making small payments to large debts.
This is not the clients fault. This is the fault of the company for selling something when it should not have been sold.
Bottom line, sales people focus on selling, not educating. If the company actually did the right thing for consumers, those problems you mentioned would all but disappear, of course, so would a large block of revenue from the clients that should get turned away.
The industry likes to talk about screening and suitability but everyone knows it is a bunch of BS, when you have a sales guy on the phone who gets paid to sell a product, there is no objective screening.
How many times is a typical debt settlement sales person going to recommend that a consumer talk to a bankruptcy attorney if the consumer thinks they can maybe afford the payments? Um let me think…never.
How many times would a typical debt settlement sales person suggest to a potential client that they should just not sign up yet, fall behind on their credit cards and see what kind of hardship programs are offered. Then if the deals aren’t good enough, call back in a few months and we will enroll you for settlement? Um let me think about this harder…Ya, that happens um…oh…also never.
So there is a lot of big talk about screening and suitability but that is all it is…talk. At the end of the day they are going for the sale and thus the industry predictably has all the problems you mentioned and more.
As far as your conclusion, I would say you are very wrong. Nice people with homes, and a w-2 job get settlements all the time. If you do it the right way and only under the right circumstances, it usually works out just fine.
Typical debt settlement scam. Take all your money upfront and do nothing. I love how they really lay on the sales pitch about having a lawyer represent you, but when the rubber hits the road, all you get is a form answer with a last minute phone call telling you not to worry about anything.
I am sorry you are having to go through this situation. I hope they will refund you some of the money but it is unlikely that you will see much of it back.
Thank you for sharing this information to at least help serve as a warning to other consumers.
Even though you mentioned not wanting to file bankruptcy, it might be a prudent course of action to at least meet with a BK attorney to determine what a filing would look like at this point. It may be a good option, or it may not, but you should at least explore it.
If not, you still may be able to salvage some good settlements with your creditors. It will just depend on how long it will take you to raise the funds from this point moving forward.
Damon thank you. I am at a loss. The creditor that took me to court in July now has a continuance next Thursday. I can’t make the trip again so it will be instant judgement against me when I don’t show up. I have made offers to the credit union and they have refused all of them. With judgement against me next week the amount gets written off as uncollected debt and then the collection agency comes after me. It goes into my credit report two ways, uncollected debt AND judgement placed against me. Do you know any procedural move that can be done to stop them from getting a judgement? Jeanette
So much for the great Legal Representation the sales person for World Law promised for 5,000 dollars. I wonder if the sales people at this company and others like it are just ignorant about how bad they are hurting people, or do they know and just don’t really care.
First let me tell you that I am not a lawyer so I can’t offer legal advice, just some suggestions of what I would do in that situation.
Even though the answer that world law gave you sounds like it was a formatted and misspelled joke, did you file that in response to the complaint?
What was the continuance for? What specifically is this hearing for on Thursday? Has anything else been filed in this case in addition to the complaint and possibly your answer?
How much total debt do you have that is now outstanding and delinquent? How much is this lawsuit for? Do you have any means to settle this lawsuit if the plaintiff was agreeable to it?
Do to the sensitive nature of the questions I am asking. If you prefer to answer privately you can contact me through my website at
DamonDay.com
Under the “How I Help You” Section of my website you will see a link for “Ask Damon” and you can email me directly through that, or if you would prefer to schedule an actual phone consultation to put together a workable plan to move forward with, you can set that up as well.
I assume that when you say the hearing is next Thursday, you mean a week from now correct?