Mann Bracken calls me everyday but I have not spoken to them. I'm sure it is in refrence to an old debt, I haven't had any active credit cards since 2001. I had joined a debt consolidation program & paid them faithfully $300 every month for 4 years only to find they hadn't paid any of my creditors. I was not working & could not pay again & could not get the debt consolidation people to return my calls & all letters were retuned. I think they were CCOA, Credit Couns. of America. Larry Kline with Mann Bracken has never mailed me any letters regarding this, only calls. I live in Ky, what would be the best course of action to take? If they sent me a letter I planned to respond with the debt validaton.

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When was the last time you made a payment on the credit cards? I know you said you where in a program, if they didn't pay your creditors you might be in luck.

The statute of limitations is 5 years in your state. If it has been more than that since a payment was made then they can not sue you by law. They can try to collect though. You will need to pull your credit report and see when the last time payments where made.

So if the SOL has passed all you need to do is send a cease and desist letter for them to not contact you anymore. If they try to sue you, you can counter-sue them if the debt is passed the SOL.

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Howdy Gang, first thanks for a forum to talk about the ruse of Mann Bracken. I have a two year old judgement with them that is close to $40k between two loans. I was hit hard a few years ago by Worldcom layoffs and lost alot of savings. This is when the debt rose for me. It was originally $26k but has grown.

They took $2K from my frozen bank account then and now demand a lump sum which wont happen. I need a bank account to do my work, but am afraid to try for fear of them again.

They call at least 10-12 times a day, and I don't have any answers. Am I done for?

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You have a very high judgment. When you went to court didn't the judge setup or suggest some kind of payment arrangement? You can't live your life on hold, so if I were you I would talk to a lawyer, your situation seems very serious.

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I did not go to court because Wolpolf won the arbitration with the Nat'l Arbitration Forum. I thought it was an open/shut case against me, but felt (and still feel) strongly that they abused the relationship.

Before hand, I set up a pay plan only to have them want 3x as much as agreed. So I stopped talking to them and figured I was out of options.

After a judgement is there anything that can be done aside from bankruptcy?

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I had an account with Chase that went to Mann Brackenn LLC in 2006. The amount owed was 8000.00. It went straight to arbitraition with Mann Brackenn and I had a court date. The day before court they offered me a payment plan. The payment was 200.00 a month, which I accepted, and then I paid on the account for 3 years. Two months ago I received my payment back in the mail with a "unable to forward" message stamped on the envelope. I tried calling Mann Bracken who forwarded my call straight to Chase's collection department. They told me that they no longer deal with Mann Bracken, and they had no idea that I was making payments through them. I was lucky enough to continue my payment plan through Chase, in exactly the same way it was made through Mann Brackenn. The person I talked with at Chase said that Mann Brackenn was a crooked company to deal with.

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OK, I used to work as a paralegal for Wolpoff and Abramson, who, along with Mann Bracken, was bought out by Axiant. I've been reading some of the comments here and would like to offer some help to everyone.

First off, for people who are wondering if Mann Bracken is a real law firm or just a collection agency and whether or not they are licensed in your state, I will just say this: yes, they are a real law firm with full power of attorney, and if they are not licensed in your state, they will just hire licensed attorneys from the National Collection Attorney Network. If you think that you can get off on a technicality because you think that they are not licensed to sue you in your state, you will be sorely disappointed.

The first thing you can do to protect yourself is to send them a letter to cease and desist all communication to stop the collection calls and letters. Make sure the letter has a fake return address; you want to make it hard for them to know where you are currently residing. I suggest asking a relative if you can use their address. If they did not cease contact, keep track of all the letters they send you (through your relative's address) and record all calls made to you. Once you have collected a couple of letters, you can use it to threaten them with. Tell them to stop the litigation against you or you will counter sue them. I suggest for everyone to read the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for more information.

Hiding your current address is very important. Suits are expensive, and the hardest part of litigation is the service. Service for a debt collection suit has only a 20% chance of success. They will want to limit the service attempts to about 2, maybe 3 times at most. After that, they will give up and send the account back to the original creditor. To beat service, if you don't mind your family or roommates knowing that you are in debt, tell them to tell the process servers or sheriff - depending on your what state you're in, service can be effectuate by a process server or sheriff - that you moved to another address but that they have no means of contacting you. That way, the process server or sheriff cannot substitute your family for service because there will be no guarantee that your family can contact you to let you know that you have been served.

If you are unfortunate enough to be served, do not disregard the service papers. It varies from state to state, but essentially, the service packet will include a summons to appear for trial, complaint, notice to defend, affidavit, and some other papers. The summons, complaint, and notice are the papers that will be most important in the packet. The summons will tell you when and where you have the hearing date is for your trial or pretrial. If you don't show up to court, you will almost always get a judgment entered against you by default. Half the battle is to simply show up. The complaint will let you know who is suing you and for how much. The notice will tell you what you can do to defend yourself; it usually involves writing an arbitrary statement to the court. Always defend yourself. As a former paralegal for this company, I can certainly tell you that a disputed case, whether or not the dispute is real, makes getting judgment twice as hard because of the obstacle of proving the debt is real and that it does belong to you. By disputing the debt and showing up to court, the attorneys will have to order documents from the original creditor to prove the debt. Half of the time, the original creditor will no longer have the necessary documents or it will take to long to get the documents and the attorney will have to dismiss that suit. So remember, always defend, always show up to court hearings, and always ask for validation of the debt with documents.

For people who are in real financial hardship but still want to pay off the debt, there are things you can do as well. If you can prove that you really are in hardship - laid off, disable, multiple debts, dependents, etc., you can request a court ordered stipulation. In some states, it is also called a consent order or a consent judgment. Essentially, it is a payment arrangement that has been filed with a court. It will typically say, "I, John Doe, as the debtor, agree to pay Mann Bracken who represents the original creditor, Whatever Co., a total of $xxxx.xx with monthly payments of $xx.xx due on the 1st of each month starting on January 1, 2010." The thing about stipulations is that they are typically set at very low monthly payments. I've personally drafted stipulations as low as $15 per month on an account with a balance of $2000. The reason that they will accept such low payments is because the stipulation will guarantee them an automatic judgment if you default, so make sure you adhere to the terms of the stipulation. Also, sometimes they will have no choice but to accept a stipulation. Sometimes, they will take a debtor to court and the debtor will prove to the judge that they are in hardship. The judge can then order Mann Bracken to accept a stipulation with very low payments on a high balance even if they do not want to.

Well, after years of experience working as a paralegal for Wolpoff and Abramson, these are the tricks that I've learned. I also know people who are still working for Mann Bracken. I've heard rumors that they have lost a lot of money and can no longer afford to pay process servers or the sheriff offices money for services anymore. Just earlier this year, they were being sued because the National Arbitration Forum is a subsidiary of Axiant, who owns WA and MB. So there were claims of a conflict of interest. Maybe if you all hold out long enough, MB will go bankrupt before they can get judgment against you. Good luck to all you out there.

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I am currently in a payment plan with Mann Bracken. I've paid off half of a $10,000 debt. I need to make lower payments temporarily because money is tight and I have other debts that are suffering because of this. They refuse to do anything. Can anyone please help? Please email me at e-mail address removed for your protection - ND



Please do not post personal info on a public forum

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I am getting calls from Mann bracken they are threatening litigation and garnishment of wages seizure of assets I have sent them a cease communication form and they are still calling and claiming that they received no such letter. What should we do

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did you send the letter certified mail return receipt?if not re-send it that way.

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giving hope to the hopeless,help to the helpless,and hap to the hapless.

CM/RRR, explained.

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The four 'no's of dealing with collectors:
No validation? No payment. No way! No kidding!!

Tellin' you all the zomby troof
Here I'm is, the zomby woof
[Frank Zappa, 1988 - R.I.P.]