Our client contacted our firm after discovering that his bank account was frozen. Upon inspection, we ascertained that the bank levy was imposed by the NYC Marshall due to a judgment entered against our client in 2009. The judgment creditor was DNS Equity Group Inc., a debt buyer who had purchased our client’s credit card debt from Chase Bank.
DNS Equity was being represented by Daniels, Norelli, Scully and Cecere, whom Lebedin Kofman LLP often handles cases with successfully. The current balance of the judgment currently totaled $11,733.79. After reviewing the case with our client, we discovered that he resided in Manhattan at the time of the lawsuit, not Queens County where the original lawsuit was filed. A creditor suing a debtor in the improper county is a violation of the Federal Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Once such a violation is observed, a skilled consumer rights attorney should be able to use it as leverage to obtain a better settlement for the client.
Here, we were able to successfully use this information together with other hardship details to obtain a settlement of 70% off the original balance owed within 9 days of our office being retained, saving our client $8,213. This settlement agreement involved our client’s bank being released, allowing him to quickly regain access to his account, and the judgment against him being vacated.