Success Stories
Please Note
Nothing on this web site should be viewed as creating an attorney-client relationship between you and our law firm, or any of our attorneys. The information here is general in nature and should not be viewed as applying to your specific circumstances. Only a qualified consumer rights attorney can advise you about your specific situation. Hyde & Swigart are California consumer rights attorneys. State laws, and the interpretation and rulings on federal laws, are different in each jurisdiction. Comments here pertain to California unless otherwise stated. If you feel you need consumer rights legal advice, contact Hyde & Swigart at (602) 265-3332 for a free consultation.
These stories are not necessarly typical cases. We cannot, and do not, make any promises with regard to any case.
Over $100,000 from an abusive debt collector.
A California consumer owed a debt. In an effort to collect on the debt, the debt collector tricked the consumer's cellular telephone provider to give the debt collector the password to the consumer's cellular web account. The debt collector was able to access the names and telephone numbers of the consumers friends, family, and business associates - people the consumer called or who called the consumer. The debt collector then began to call the consumers friends, family, and business associates, and claimed the debt collector was "investigating" the consumer because the consumer refused to pay debts owed. We were able to recover for the consumer in an amount over $100,000.
An innocent enough looking letter.
A California consumer fell behind on his homeowner's association payment. The debt collector for the homeowner's association sent the consumer a letter. One letter. The letter violated the FDCPA because it asked for fees that the debt collector was not allowed to collect. The consumer never actually payed the fees, but the demand was made. Our office recovered over $25,000.
You can do a lot with a quarter million dollars.
A woman, our client, owed a debt of less than $10,000. A debt collector telephoned her demanding payment. Because she was currently attending college and was only working part time, she made payment arrangements.
She paid as requested monthly payments for about six months, but suddenly the debt collector demanded more every month than previously agreed. When the woman explained that she could not afford any more, the debt collector told her the money previously paid would not be credited to her account and that she had to start paying over again. Further, the debt collector told the woman that if she did not pay the money demanded he would see to it the woman was branded as a unreliable and irresponsible, and that the woman would never find a job. He suggested the woman engage in prostitution to pay off the debt.
The case was litigated by our office, and the defendants eventually agreed to pay over $280,000 to the plaintiff.