I found this article on the internet regarding a lawsuit against Palisades Collection Agency and figured I would share it with everyone.
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), May 8, 2007 by Dave Anderton Deseret Morning News
Janet Perry thought her cell phone contract with AT&T Wireless had expired.
Yet for years, Perry kept receiving bills from AT&T, insisting that she owed the wireless carrier money, despite her repeated explanations that the contract was over and she had paid her balance in full.
Nearly a decade later, Perry is still fighting more than $1,800 in cell phone charges billed to her after her contract expired.
Last week Perry filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Palisades Collection, a New Jersey-based collection agency, and the law office of Mitchell N. Kay P.C., which specializes in the collection of debts, alleging that the defendants violated federal statutes by using deceptive means to collect a debt that did not exist.
Judson Pitts, a Salt Lake consumer attorney representing Perry, said Perry's circumstance is common.
"Personally, I've had my father, my brother and my sister-in-law in the last two years call me about cell phone problems," Pitts said. "They just don't cancel contracts after the contracts are done, and then they report them to credit bureaus, and collection agencies go after them. It's just horrible."
Attempts by the Deseret Morning News to contact Palisades Collection and the law office of Mitchell N. Kay were unsuccessful Monday. According to court documents, the Law Offices of Mitchell N. Kay is believed to be a defunct New York corporation doing business in the state of Utah. An AT&T spokeswoman said the company had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment on it.
In 2006, Perry was sued by Palisades Collection, an assignee of AT&T, in 3rd District Court in Salt Lake County for $1,843.64. However, the Palisades Collection complaint was dismissed with prejudice by the court.
Yet Perry's victory was short-lived. This year, the Law Offices of Mitchell N. Kay started sending collection letters to Perry demanding that she pay the same $1,843.64. In April, Perry also discovered that Palisades Collection had reported her supposed AT&T Wireless debt to the big three credit reporting agencies as a "charge off."
Francine Giani, executive director of the Utah Department of Commerce, said the case appears to be a misrepresentation of services and violates the Utah Consumer Sales Practices Act. Violations of the act carry a $2,500 penalty.
"That's illegal billing as far as I am concerned," Giani said. "We would go back to AT&T, and we would ask them to make this right. If it is a bill that is not owed, you cannot do that."
Consumers with similar complaints can contact the Utah Division of Consumer Protection at 801-530-6601.
Perry is seeking $2,000 from each of the defendants and attorney's fees. In addition, she is asking the court to prohibit the defendants from reselling the AT&T Wireless account to other debt buyers and that the defendants remove their reporting of the account from her credit report.
"The problem is when you call a business it is very rare that you can talk to somebody who can do anything," Pitts said. "Cutting through red tape makes it almost impossible before they have done damage to your credit or assign it out for debt collection."
E-mail: danderton@desnews.com
Copyright C 2007 Deseret News Publishing Co.
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Bibliography for "Utahn sues in tiff over cell-phone bill" Dave Anderton Deseret Morning News "Utahn sues in tiff over cell-phone bill". Deseret News (Salt Lake City). May 8, 2007. FindArticles.com. 21 Jan. 2008. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20070508/ai_n19064594
