DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Everything Else... Woman Sues Debt Collector, Wins $83 Million

Not sure how the jury can award someone so much money just because they wanted to do it. This will likely be tossed out by the judge on appeals or something but still its crazy.

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A Missouri jury ordered a debt buyer to pay nearly $83 million to a Kansas City woman it pursued for a $1,000 credit card bill she didn't owe, NPR affiliate KCUR reports. The jury found Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC guilty of violating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, for which it will pay $250,000 in damages, as well as maliciously prosecuting the woman, Maria Guadalupe Mejia, over the debt that did not belong to her. For the malicious prosecution, the jury awarded Mejia $82,990,000 in punitive damages.

PRA Group Inc., which owns Portfolio Recovery Associates, sent an email statement to Credit.com:

"This outlandish verdict defies all common sense," wrote spokesman Michael McKeon. "We hope and expect the judge will set aside this inappropriate award, and we plan to file motions to make that request formally in the near term. Any fair reading of the facts of this case makes plain that a verdict of this size is not justice by any means, and cannot stand."

Portfolio Recovery, one of the nation's largest debt buyers, sued Mejia in February 2013 over the credit card debt, though the actual debtor turned out to be a man in Kansas City, Kansas, with a name similar to Mejia's. The company pursued Mejia for the debt for 15 months after she first received notice of the lawsuit. In a written statement to KCUR, Mejia said, "The lawsuit terrified me."

Fear is a common consumer response to debt collectors, whether the debt is legitimate or not. The first thing consumers should do when they hear from a debt collector is ask the collector to validate the debt in writing — it's crucial to know your debt collection rights as a consumer, so you don't end up paying a debt you don't owe or letting the collection account unnecessarily damage your credit standing. (You can see if a collection account is affecting your credit scores for free on Credit.com.)

If you're unsure of how to approach a debt collection situation, you may want to consult a consumer law attorney, who may review your case for free, to help you understand whether the collector is violating your rights.

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LOL Portfolio Recovery services is after me for a debt that I don't owe. It's been only a month so they haven't threatened legal action yet. I've shown them that I don't owe the amount but because I refuse to give them my SS number, they are saying I'm hiding and they are going to continue to call me. Sometimes as many as 5 times a day and they NEVER leave a message. (mostly because I answer the phone when I'm home)

So I get this womans frustration. I think they should be required to pay her something. That amount seems WAY out of bounds.

A couple of hundred thousand would be high to me, but way fairer.

PRA needs to be accountable for their actions,,, NO Question about it, but 83 million,, YIKES...

Give her the money.

I'm with CHSDawg. Besides they could have awarded her a dollar and they would complain it was too much. You gotta start high so you have something to negotiate on appeal

My guess is that they proved negligence or a history of doing this to others, which opens the door to the punitive damages.

The intent of punitive damages is to deter from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit, and in my opinion is very important part of our legal system.

This being said, it will be appealed, and they'll settle on a lower amount.

Sue them.

Funny thing is, if you do a search on Portfolio Recovery Suits, you get tons of "Being sued by Portfolio Recovery?" pages.

I see a path to early retirement for you

I got a letter from them once trying to collect a debt, only the person they were trying to collect from had a different middle initial. (Thank God)

I called them, and found out the rest of the information as to who they were looking for, told them that a simple internet search would give them the current address of the guy they are looking for, and that they had better not try to take any legal action against me, or I would get a lawyer and sue.

This article explains why I have never heard from them since.

Seriously though, I open every single piece of mail I get at my home, because I want to make sure that I have nothing like this showing up. I have very few debts, and I carefully watch my credit report, but you just never know when a debt collector will mass mail everyone with a name similar to yours to try and get someone to pay.

This surely will be appealed.

I hope it bankrupts Portfolio Recovery! Then they can get a taste of their own medicine... lol

LOL Naa,, I'm not a very litigation oriented kinda guy.. I'd do it if they continue after they receive the letter I sent them the other day detailing how I can't be the guy they are looking for... We'll see. I don't care much for lawyers.. (no offense to the lawyers on this board)

$83 million because the woman was harassed by a debt collection agency? That seems quite excessive. I worked for UPS debt collection for a few years and I'll tell you, 95% of the people I had to call weren't innocent victims. They used the service without understanding the process and they legitimately owed money, and they said anything and everything they could to dispute it and try and get out of owing the money. I understand the woman in this article was innocent, and she had every right to sue them, but $83 million!? That could bankrupt the company and cost a lot of people their jobs. The woman in this article might deserve some money, but no stinkin' way does she deserve $83 million......

She won't get $83 million, and it will get reduced, but this company has a history of harassing people, and bullying to collect.

They often don't ever call, just send out a court summons to folks, hoping they ignore it thinking it is a scam (since they never got a call or any other notice), and then they can get wages garnished.

The biggest problem seems to be their research, and the number of innocent people they harass.

This woman should be nice and offer to give back half upon appeal.

I agree, 95% are probably in debt and don't pay. The problem is, why in the hell should the 5% (which I am one of those) be harrased because some idiot bill collector doesn't want to do their jobs and verify information.

That's the part that bugs the hell out of me.

You're not wrong Daman....

But do you deserve $83 million?

I get random debt calls too from people who used to have my cell phone number. The employees who work at these call centers don't know whether the people they're calling tell the truth or not.

Starts with management and skip tracing departments though, they need to be more accountable and more accurate.

The first number, $225,000 in damages, that seems more fair....

Even that is a lot of money.

$83 million, for a modest sized company, could spell bankruptcy and firing lots of people when looking at the bigger picture. (just my opinion).

She should make at least a million just off punitive damages alone.

All I want to know is, can I sue the printer toner/ink/ribbon people that keep calling me and claiming their cartridges last 10x longer than anyone else's, for false advertising. Not to mention I can buy 10 at Office Depot for the price of one of theirs.

If this is true and his are 10x longer lasting than the guy before him that said his were 10x longer lasting, and so on and so on, these things should last my entire lifetime.

From the sound of the people who I spoke to when I called this company, bankrupting the company won't cost any American a job .........

"The company pursued Mejia for the debt for 15 months after she first received notice of the lawsuit. In a written statement to KCUR, Mejia said, "The lawsuit terrified me."

I believe there will be an appeal as well, but in the meantime if a company can't determine that the person whose life they're ruining is the right or the wrong person then they deserve some fear as well.

When a doctor, a police officer, or any other occupation that can seriously change someone's life by this type of proven negligence is found guilty the verdict usually ruins their career for good reason.

No, she doesn't deserve 83 million.,. That's crazy and I said so earlier in this thread.

IMHO if I take out a loan and they sell the loan without my permission then they have broken my agreement with them because whenever they do that they always try to make the conditions of the loan different and tack on all sort of weird fees.

Sears did that to me once. I won the case and ended up paying nothing because the judge agreed that they had violated the loan agreement.

These companies should all be illegal and shut down IMHO. Lol they can't call me anymore because I only use google to make calls for free. It's nice not getting woke up at 5am because some stupid arse bill collector thinks I am Enrique.

That's wild... I looked at Terms and Conditions of the last loan I took, there was a statement in there about the lender having the right to move servicing of this loan to another vendor. I wonder what that does to a case like yours.

They had a similar clause in mine but when they sold it they changed the interest rate and tried to charge me fees for them buying it.

Oh,, Ok so they tried to change the terms.. OK, I get that.