I started with them in April of 2007, and I have just reached the final settlement, on my last credit card....they have successfully settled 24K in credit card debt for around 13K, including their fees.
They are sometimes hard to get a hold of, I will grant you that, some days you need to leave a message and wait for a return call, but if you understand the program, read through how it works, and sign the contract, you will find that it works, they do a good job, and although it takes some time, it has saved me probably 20K if you add in what I would have ended up paying in interest, etc.
It is not a scam, and it has worked for me. They are accredited by the BBB. And it took almost a year before the first account was settled, because you have to pay their fee upfront, understandable, and you have to have enough cash in your trust account to be able to negotiate with....that takes time...also your accounts need to go into charge off before they can be negotiated down.
I would also like to add, that while you could do this on your own, at once point Citibank did file a lawsuit against me, and having a law firm, and the trust account helped to settle that out of court....JDH did all the settling for me, I did not have to hire a separate attorney.
I did start before the economy went down the tubes...so things may have changed, but this was a great help for me.