MIDLAND FUNDING DEBT JUDGMENT REMOVED

A consumer recently retained us to help him remove a default judgment obtained against him by Midland Funding, one of the biggest debt buyers in the country. Midland used the services of Selip and Stylianou, a common debt collection law firm in New York formerly known as Cohen and Slamowitz. Our client was originally sued for $5,000 but the amount had almost doubled because of New York’s judgment interest accruing annually at 9%. Our client only learned about this matter when he realized that his bank account was frozen. We advised him to immediately go to the bank and remove the New York exemption amount of $2,640 from his account which only left a few hundred dollars levied.

We quickly drafted an Order to Show Cause to vacate the default judgment. Although our client did have a reasonable excuse and meritorious defense in this matter, our main argument focused on Midland never having obtained jurisdiction over our client in the first place as he was never properly served. The NYCPLR states that any judgment obtained based on improper service would lead to a lack of jurisdiction and thus be null and void. In that case, a showing of a reasonable excuse and meritorious is not even necessary. Shortly after our motion was filed, Selip and Stylianou contacted us offering to voluntarily vacate the judgment against our client and stating that Midland would agree to accept $500 to settle the entire matter in full. Our client accepted the offer to avoid further unnecessary costs and fees.