Bhg Lawsuits Against Businesses and Consumers

BHG or Bankers Healthcare Group is a common creditor that we defend businesses and consumers against in pre-litigation collection, lawsuits, and even post-judgment enforcement matters. We represent clients from all over the country primarily because BHG has a forum-selection clause in their contract that states that they will pursue collection and litigation efforts in Onondaga County, an upstate NY county that sees significantly less litigation than it’s downstate counterparts. Recently we have encountered a few new third-party law firms that have been representing BHG with the collection and litigation of these matters. Christopher Cali, their in-house counsel and Jeremey Cali were the attorneys that frequently represent BHG, but recently, Harris Beach, a larger upstate New York law firm, Byrne, Costello and Pickard, and Nicholas Constantine Law have all been opposing counsel on matters where we have recently represented business and consumer defendants. We are not sure if this is because of an increase of filed lawsuits which there certainly seems to be an increase of or some other reason.

However, the strategy remains the same no matter which law firm represents BHG. An answer with affirmative defenses must be submitted to protect the defendant from a default judgment against them. A default judgment can result in a bank levy, wage garnishment, a lien on real property or other assets as well as judgment interest accruing and increasing the debt itself. This is easily avoidable by submitting an answer that keeps the burden on the plaintiff to prove their case while shifting the leverage into the defendant’s position. Common defenses against BHG include Standing or a question about proper ownership of the debt, Usury or validating whether the percentage of interest of the loan is within the legal limit, TILA or truth in lending act disclosure violations and even a Statute of limitation defense in certain scenarios where a lawsuit has been brought long after the default occurred.

One common scenario clients tell us about is that they were pushed to obtain the loan by BHG under the guise of a LLC or self-proprietorship even when they did not have a business to take the loan under. A business loan is certainly easier for a creditor to enforce against in the event of a default given that they do not have to follow many of the consumer protections in place making it easier and faster to sue, win and move against assets and or property. There have been some lawsuits and countersuits brought against BHG for these reasons but no definitive result against them has been obtained to this date.