Our client was sued by the Law Offices of Frederic I. Weinberg & Associates, P.C. for a $39,000.00 Bank of America defaulted credit card account. Bank of America is an original creditor and is notoriously aggressive in consumer debt actions because they usually try to substantiate their debts through years of account statements. Before retaining our office to represent her for this matter, our client was pressured into an unfair agreement with Frederic Weinberg’s office to repay the full balance due at $100 per month along with interest. This means that effectively, she would have been paying this debt forever and the total due would just continue to climb. This also put her in a position where if she ever missed a payment BOA could enter judgment for the full amount of the original debt and attempt to enforce it against her.
These terrible deals often happen to many of our clients before they retain our services because the collection companies and/or attorney’s offices scare and pressure consumers into accepting settlements for the full balance as opposed a highly reduced settlement that we often obtain. Furthermore, when a client has already entered into such a deal before we are retained, it makes obtaining a settlement much more difficult because they have already agreed and admitted that this debt is their own (the Plaintiffs always sneak that into the stipulations that the client signs so that they can easily obtain judgment if the client defaults). After negotiations with opposing counsel, we were able to settle the account for $10,000, which amounted to 75 percent off of the balance due. This saved our client $30,000 off the principle amount she was initially sued for and thousands of dollars of interest that she would have been responsible for under her original agreement.