January 9, 2015 – The New York Attorney General has settled the investigation of debt collection agency Midland Funding LLC, Midland Credit Management and Encore Capital Group’s thousands of default judgments used to garnish wages and freeze bank accounts of New York consumers in Brooklyn, Queens, and NYC.

Midland Funding LLC is a third party debt buyer that buys defaulted and charged-off credit card accounts from the original creditor.

Midland Funding LLC is represented in the Civil Court of the City of New York, Counties of Kings / Brooklyn, Queens, New York & beyond by debt collection law firms Forster & Garbus LLP, Rubin & Rothman LLC, Cohen & Slamowitz LLP, Selip & Stylianou LLP.

The deceptive or un-fair debt collection practices Midland Funding LLC complaints identified include:

• Debt collection legal filings containing falsified credit card billing statements. The debt collection billing statements were recently created, but “back-dated” to the date the consumer was believed to have used the credit card account.
• “Robo-signing” of affidavits by Midland Funding LLC debt collectors – acting like robots – signing hundreds, or even thousands, of affidavits in just one day, without proper review of the defaulted credit card account history.
• Filing debt collection lawsuits after the statute of limitations for credit card debt collection had expired.

The investigation of Midland Funding LLC has been supported by consumer rights groups, because so many New Yorkers victimized by Midland Funding wage garnishment and frozen bank account notices are not familiar with the debt collection court system to defend themselves.

Even though most consumers with financial hardship fail to respond to a debt collection lawsuit summon and complaint, consumers frequently believe the balance has been increased by the debt collection agency, and that the consumer does not owe the amount claimed.

If you have received legal documents from debt collection lawyers be sure to check whether the original creditor sold your credit card default account to Midland Funding LLC, or another debt buyer such as Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC, LVNV Funding LLC, CACH LLC or Asset Acceptance LLC.

You may need to file a debt defense motion to vacate a judgment and protect you from debt collection abusive practices.

You may be entitled to a refund of any money collected from you through payment, wage garnishment or bank account freeze. You may also be entitled to additional money from Midland Funding LLC due to its deceptive and un-fair debt collection practices.