legal mediation practice

Yeah, I figured the BBB was probably a waste of time, but hey the more people that hear about these jerks, the better. I'd even contact your local news, if you're so inclined. I know I e-mailed a local news station here in Jacksonville about them but never heard back from the reporter I e-mailed. I'm sure he's inundated with e-mails. I'll try again.

Received a message yesterday at 4:24 p.m. on my voice mail from Ms. Jackson of Legal Mediation Practice threatening jail, etc. She informed me that I've "waived a trial by jury and also mediation," "better get an attorney ASAP!" I explained to her that if I had the $2,000 for an attorney, don't you think I would have taken care of this debt! DUH! No brainer! I then told her I would go to the agency that I owe and pay them in person and she said she wanted the money now. But, also proceeded to tell me that as of 12:00 noon yesterday my time, I was in violation and they've already filed charges against me. If her message came at 4:24 p.m. my time and she is only 3 hours away, shouldn't she have called and warned me sooner???? Anyway, she got so riled up, she hung up in my face. :lol: I then went to the FTC website in my state (CA) and filed a complaint against them for their threats, intimidation and verbal abuse.

Do you have the threat on tape? That is a violation and you could slap THEM with a lawsuit..then you could tell her, "Better go get YOUR lawyer ASAP!" :lol:

You know, every time I read a story like Roxanne0729's I'm just stunned! I cannot believe Il-legal Mediation Practice's stupidity and outright violations of the fdcpa! Do these people just think they are above the law?

I've said it before, and I'll say it agian: File complaints! With you states Attorney General's office, Florida's Attorney General's office, and the FTC!

You took the first step in filing with the FTC! Now follow up with the Attorney Generals' offices. Also, as GoldenBast says, do you have their voice mail message still? Can you copy it to a portable recording device or your PC? Also, not sure what the rules are in CA about recording phone calls; however, I would consider calling Ms. Jackson (if you're nasty!) back and recording your phone conversation. Make sure to check if CA is a one party or two party state when it comes to consenting to have your phone calls recorded! And as GoldenBast said, I would tell that hag you are going to get an attorney, but it will not be for the reason she thinks! You can start looking for one on www.naca.net, that specializes in violations of the FDCPA and/or consumer law.

Whether or not you owe the money is irrelevant, at this point, Il-legal Mediation Practice has severely violated the law and they need to be held accountable for it. You are entitled, under the law, to be treated with professionalism, honesty, and courtesy, not like they are some sore of organized crime thug that will come break your kneecaps!

They want to bluff and lie? Well, join her! Call her up and (if you can record secretly) get all upset and plead not to goto jail...string her along..she will violate left and right thinking she is going in for the kill. :twisted:

Well, I found the information on this site and it appears Roxanne0729, since you live in California, you need the consent and agreement of both parties when recording phone calls. You could always try calling them and letting them know you are recording the call, and if they continue to speak with then they are giving their acknowledgment and consent to this. Unless they are either absolutely unbelievably stupid (as I think they are) or that they are above the law, I'm sure they would definitely watch what they say. But it could be worth a try.

but didnt they leave the voicemail? obviously Voicemail is recorded!! wouldn't leaving the voicemail be consent for that recording?

good question I would like to know the answer to this one.

ladybug

As I understand it, the voice mail is fair game as they did leave it knowing full well they were being recorded. So if there is anything threatening or illegal on that, then "BAM" slam dunk fdcpa violation case.

I was only checking to see if Ronxeanne0729 had to get their consent to record any future phone conversations with these half-wits!

Of course, I could be wrong about the voice mail so I hope someone comes along and corrects me if I am.

Legal mediation practice called my parents house and left a message saying, I need to call them back at 800 201 0565 immediately regarding a time sensitive matter. At the end and wish me good luck. This has strongly scared my parents who are immigrants and any legal term worried them. I do no know what's this is all about. What they doing is totally illegal and invade innocent people's privacy. I have been frauded in 2003 for $50,000+ from this company located in New York saying they called from Dept Of Treasure. Threatening me with possessing my property by government, etc. After the fraud, i was depressed for almost a year. This is how a innocent and honest person finally learned there are those bad people out there. Those are the people should be put in jail. I am still upset about what I have been through.

Are these idiots still running the "Good Luck" at the end of the phone message scam? I mean, what normal person tells someone "Good Luck" at the end of a message, unless they think it's intimidating to the one receiving it? Personally, when they did it to me (after I had sent them a DV and C&D letter) it ticked me off!

Upset, you could call them back and see if they will give you any information as to what they are calling about. My guess is, they will not. At least not without a fight. Likewise, if you try asking for their address, they will not give it to you.

Just send them a debt validation and Cease and Desist letter, by USPS certified return receipt requested. If they call you again, without validating the debt, then get an attorney and sue them for violating the fdcpa. If you still have the message where they wished you luck, keep a copy of that too. And, if you can, you might want to record any phone calls you have with these idiots! Make sure to check if you can record them without them having to consent to it.

Above all, don't let them intimidate you or aggravate your parents. These jack-asses break the FDCPA at every opportunity, they need to be held accountable for this.

Amen to that Ron!!!

Had collecion agency call me yesterday forgot the name Trojan or something like that. They gave me until 2:45 to pay.

Once they were done with their speil I began quoting the fdcpa verbatum (i have it next to my phone) the shut up real fast. 18776472700 is the number. Anyway thanks to this thread and the members here I was able to adequately handle these clowns. Just need to locate an addres to DV them off to search

I foundinfo on this company in my above post. Started a new thread Tritium card services

After a day of making myself physically sick = I feel much better about finding all of you! Mr. Taylor called me today and told me that I had until 9:00 a.m. on Monday or they would be at my work with a summons to court. I was just diagnosed with a life threatening illness and I have enough stress in my life. I have missed so much work - this may put my employer over the edge. However, I am not going to let them bully me. Can anyone tell me where to get a copy of what to say in a cease and desist letter and a debt validation letter?

Again, thank you so much for everything....I can sleep tonight!

Now how the heck did an Il-legal Mediation Practice post come in under my radar?!? Must have been too entertained by our "No Nonsense Collector" posts and missed it. Need to pay more attention.

SickAndScared, first off I'm sorry you are going through this. Please don't let these jerks intimidate you at all. They are so full of crap with their threats it isn't even funny. You have bigger worries right now with your illness, rather than being scared by their illegal tactics.

I'm guessing 9 AM rolled around today and the SWAT team didn't show up at your job to rough you up? You just have your first verified violation of the fdcpa. The first of many, I assure you.

Here is a link to the letters section of the forum: http://community.debtcc.com/letters/index.html

What I did, is merged the debt validation letter with the Cease and Desist letter so I could kill two birds with one stone. I made sure to specify I only wanted them communicating with me directly through USPS. When you send the letter, make sure you send it certified mail, return receipt requested.

On a side note, I had a postal worked tell me certified mail was all I needed to do. He said since you can go to the USPS website and track and print out the receipt the shows date and time of delivery a signature card was redundant. Personally, I feel safer getting the signature card back to me in the mail. Just thought I'd share what was told to me.

I hope things work out for you in regards to your health, and please keep us posted on any problems/progress you have in regards to Il-legal Mediation Practice.

Also, you might want to register here, lot of helpful and good information available.

Just got a call from Legal Mediation Practice threatening me with Criminal Court action if I don't pay from 6 pm this evening. I've heard that you can't be prosecuted in the State of Texas for writing a check for a loan. However I never wrote a check. I gave them my checking account number and when I told the lender Cashnet USA that I didn't have the funds they went "crazy" trying to withdraw money from my account for different amounts over a 2 week period so that I was negative $700 dollars because of the $30 dollar overdraft fees. The bank closed the account and now Legal Mediation Practice is threatening me with jail time for the account being closed. I took the loan out in June 2007 and the bank closed the account in August 2007 because I couldn't bring the account back into "good standing". I asked the bank to put a stop to it, but they said they couldn't do anything until I brought the account back into the black. I didn't have the $700 dollars to do that so they closed the account a month later in August. My question is can they prosecute me for this in Texas?

Man, I really love these idiots! Legal Mediation Practice, you never fail to amuse me. I am going to have to ask them if I can have a tour of their facilities some day; I'm dying to see what type of people work there.

Larry, I wish your bank would have told you to fill out and "Affidavit of Unauthorized ACH." This would have helped you out back then when the account first became overdrawn, as you had advised Cashnet not to attempt to debit your account. As it is, it's probably way too late now. You could check with the bank, I don't think it would hurt to go into a branch and explain to someone face-to-face exactly what happened. You never know. I'm also very surprised whoever you talked to at the bank couldn't use common sense and see the overdrawn balance was caused by the NSF fees from the attempted debits.

LMP is just trying to scare you, Owing money is not a criminal matter it is a civil one. The worse they can do is sue you for what you owe Cashnet and, considering they have alrady broken the law (The fdcpa) by telling you they are going to pursue criminal court action, I doubt that will happen.

Also, since the account was opnend at the time they attempted to debit your account, and was subsequently closed because they overdrew your account, I'm pretty sure you can't even be prosecuted for "passing worthless checks." No matter what state you live in.

I would send these idiots a debt validation request and a partial cese and desist letter immediately. Tell them you only want them to communicate directly with you, by mail. If you need examples of these letter, check out my posting right above yours and you'll find letter examples there. Make sure you send the letter certified mail, return receipt requested.

Also, please check out this site and register. There is a lot of good information here that might help you out.

Keep us posted as to how things work out for you.

Just received another call from Mr. Holt with Legal Mediation Practice! He said that because I hadn't paid like I had said I would, he was going to have to file a report with the D.A. on me unless I could come up with a "good faith" downpayment. When I told him I didn't have the money he "demanded" to know where I was at so that they could come and deal with me right now. I told him that was a threat and that legally he would need to file a report first so a Warrant could be issued and hung up on him. I have tried to get a hold of Patrick Goss the Attorney in Houston, but he is in London for a few days. He is an attorney that I saw in one of the earlier posts as having filed a "class action lawsuit" against them. I was going to just let it go as they hadn't called me since Monday. After today's call I am even more eager to go after them!! I am not able to record their conversations as they are calling me on my cell which doesn't have that capability. I am a little worried that they may try something stupid like sending someone to my house to harm me or my kids though, as he did have that Italian "mob" voice and attitude. Does anyone know if they are connected to the mob? Are they real Attorneys like they say they are? Really worried, but I don't have the money. I have been having a hard time with money the last few years since I went through a nasty divorce. I am a single parent with a 16 yr old daughter living at home with me and 4 sons (for whom I pay $900 month + health insurance) who come over every other weekend. I am worried that they may actually be in some kind of danger because of all this. Is there anything I can do legally? Embarrassingly I am a former Police Officer here in Austin but, I haven't kept up with the laws these past 7 yrs and they have changed quite a bit.

Larry, considering LMP is located in Jacksonville, FL (yes, right here in my hometown) I don't think you have much to worry about. I doubt Mr. Holt will travel from Jax to Austin, TX (got that from your post, correct me if I'm wrong) to "Take Care of You." The fact he demanded to know where you were at, makes me wonder if he even knows where he's calling. Must be using an auto-dialing system now.

Make sure you send them a DV letter, and partial C&D letter. Send it CMRRR. I'm willing to bet that will be the last you will hear from Mr. Holt and company.

No, I'm pretty sure they are not attorneys. I wouldn't find it, however, hard to believe they are members of the mod. As evidenced by their mob like actions and threats. But I'm guessing the mob has higher standards and wouldn't let him in.(joke)

Please don't let them intimidate you.

As you are probably already well aware, Mr. Holt has already violated the fdcpa severely. Next time he calls you, press him for details, or even better, let him leave a VM on your cell phone. I'm betting he will violate the FDCPA at least once while leaving the VM. Then record the voice mail on a recorder or your PC and save it for when you finally get enough of their law-breaking and sue them.

Hope this helps you some. Post more questions if you have them.

Please, consider registering here. If not, make sure you read all you can on this website and ask questions when you need to.

Lots of good information to be found.

its amazing how these people can intimidate people and get away with it. Everything is a civil matter, Not criminal.

I GOT A CALL FROM THEM AND THEY ARE THE SAME COMPANY THAT HAD ALAW SUIT FROM THE STATE OF florida atty general for violation fdcpa regulations. i am expecting them to threaten me ll they wnt but they have no idea where i work a far as purposel writing a check and notpay it, some times there are circumstances as a loss of a job s in my case. i work for a collection company so goodluck all our calls are recorded and can be used in court. but they cannot come and get you and ou in jail no matter ho much they threaten you it is alo against fderal regulations that they talk to you like that and discolse persnal information without permission. if they cal again and violte your right , tell them that the flrida atty general will be notified andthey will ave to change thier compny name agin due to a law suit.

My husband got a call from these people at my fathers' house so he returned their call. They too threatened jail.......never identifying themselves of being a debt collector. My husband got scared and thought it was a cop or something.

I tried to explain this company too them after doing research. debt collectors are there to collect a debt and that is it. They can hold you responsible in a civil court, getting a judgement against you and garnishing your wages...which most of the time is about 20% of your pay per a check. They cannot criminally prosecute you for a payday loan and try to say it is a payday loan.
You write them a post dated check for the future in which they hope or assume you will come in with the payment to repay the loan in cash and they will give your check back to you or reloan to you. If you do not come in or contact them they will deposit your check to get the loan repayment.
However, this is still a loan, just like going to a bank and getting a line of credit and such. The only difference is you do not have to give a bank a psot dated check.
Passing a bad check is writing a check for the amount of whatever good or service you are getting, with the same day date on it, knowing that there are not enough funds to cover it. Whose to say that you assumed when the payday loan company was going to deposit the check that funds would not be available (ie pay check was less than you thought it would be.)

LMP business tactics are defintely illegal....but too put them out of business would be hard to do...

However after calling them and having a guy call me "stupid" I begin to read the laws of the website and he hung on me...after denying to me that they are a debt collection agent.

My husband will send payment to the actual payday loan company.....this LMP place sounds untrustworthy to me.

I made a mistake in my last post:

I meant to say that they cannot say that a payday loan is considered passing a bad check.

most collection agencies are very concerned with their standings with the ACA. If you would like to go that extra step, and report to the collections "Big Brother" fill out and file complaint to E-mail address removed as per forum rules. - Jason and file under File an Ethics Complaint. you can e-mail the form to ACA at E-mail address removed as per forum rules. - Jason, fax it with any supporting documentation to (952) 915-3922 or mail the complaint and supporting documentation to: ACA International, Attn: Ethics Department, PO Box 390106, Minneapolis, MN 55439-0106. I would love for someone to lead the ACA to this thread about the many violations. I, myself know about the company (very well) but I never personally had a payday loan that LMP tried to collect. Unfortunately they have never violated the fdcpa against me, but YOU can !!

have been getting calls from Legal Mediation Practice, demanding payment on 2 checks that were allegedly written on a closed account. Now back in June I had 2 checks returned NSF, in which I made restitution with 2 BANK checks made to Check N Go...LMP would not give me any facts and made up an account number to this alleged checking account that was closed. Eventhough I have made restitution 8 months ago, have never had a closed bank account they are still threatening to put me behind bars. I am gathering facts, have original documentation, to present to Maryland AG office, it still sucks that they call and threaten all the time...

I just filed a complaint against these guys. One Elizebeth called and begun asking if I needed an attorny. When asked if they were taking me to court she would not reply. I took this this a threat. When asked for a supervisor she refused to get one. I will now file a complaint in MN. Where can you find the recording laws for your state? I'd love to get these debators on recording.

Second, I never said I would't pay them. I told the orginal holder of the loan I would pay. They need to give me more time and reduce the penalty fees. They did neither. A 1.5k debt jumped to 3k.

I asked the collector how much they bought the debt for i.e .25 on the dollor she claims they didn't buy it that they are working for the original lender. Pretty sure that is BS since the lende shows it as Charge off.

Last someone in here said that this hurts your credit rating. The sad thing is since this charge off I've been offered other credit cards, approved for refi to safe my house. The effects of credit card charge offs are so minor its almost funny.
_________________

Actually it's not minor, you should watch the documentary "Maxed Out" it's enlightening. Also you can find recording laws and quite a few other resources via the link in my signature.

I'm quite frazzled right now about Legal Mediation Practice. I originally received a call from the the end of January. I had a payday loan that had not been paid. They ran my check 3 times and I closed the account after the second time because I told them there was no money there and I would work out a way to pay them. Then, the cash advance company called me from corporate and told me i had to pay in full. I told him I could pay $20 a month for now because i was out of a job. They told me to "keep your money, it won't help".

The end of January, I received this call from Legal Mediation Practice. The person told me I had until 8pm to pay the debt, or I would be dealt with at my home or place of employment. I advised him I could pay $100 that night and try to pay the rest 2 weeks later. I gave my debit card # and they debited $100. Then, 2 weeks later I called and asked if I could pay $300 (total debt was $560). He said that would be fine and, with fees, charged my account $332.50. I then called him 2 weeks later and advised him I needed some more time to pay the rest. He said he could file a hardship that would give me to March 7th to pay the rest. My phone had been off for the past week, so I called him today to tell him that and I could not make the payment right now and what can he do. He said he has done everything he can and if he files this, then i will be back at square 1 and have to pay everything all over again. I asked him what would happen to my $432 I paid. He said it would go to fees. I told him that I needed to make sure my bills got paid and he said "well, you won't be worrying about your electric when we deal with you legally". I got upset and told him I had been making an effort to pay off the debt and that was clearly obvious by the payments i had made and by keeping in contact with him. I told him not to treat me like a deadbeat and tell what else we can do. He told me that he was done speaking with me, he wants to help me but if i think i can make the rules then he is not listening and i should get and attorney and then he hung up the phone.

I know they can garnish my wages, and whatever, it's $179. I have every intention to finish paying it off, i just have to make sure my electric is paid and i have a place to live. Right now, I don't even know how i'm going to pay my rent, so this is not my top priority. But I will pay it off.

I don't know if this is considered writing a bad check and that's what i'm worried about. Can I be arrested if I have made an attempt to pay off the debt? The check was never signed and it was technically post dated for 2 weeks later. In fact, the check was voided (i wrote on the front and back). I'm really freaked out here. I just want to get my life back on track and I don't know how to handle this. Can they really take the $400 and make me pay it all over again?

They would be violating the fdcpa if they used the funds you paid and applied it to fees as you have the right to choose where the money you pay goes to.

Additionally I don't see where valid fees such as that could be charged.

What the guy was trying to explain is that they are not a collections agency, so it doesn't work the same way. I honestly don't know because the ONLY information I can find online about them are stories of people being harassed by them. After he hung up on me, I called a law firm that handles collection harassment and they said this didn't qualify because they didn't threaten bodily harm :shock:

SOOOO, I'm not quite sure what to do about this. There aren't $400 in fees that have accumulated. And then he tried to say that their fees would be added on if I didn't pay it off. So what, the cash advance place doesn't pay them?

I guess we'll just see what happens. But at this point, I have started to pay off the debt, i don't think i'm going to get arrested....

You can't be arrested for that. Did they threaten you with arrest?

he didn't say the word "arrest", but he kept saying I would be dealt with at my home or place of business.

he didn't say the word "arrest", but he kept saying I would be dealt with at my home or place of business.

That sounds more like a masked threat of violence, perhaps assassination. Although he was blowing smoke up your back side, you could still articulate that in court. That would be enough for me to sue them.

I agree, JCEMT. That's definitely grounds for serious legal action.

I recieved a call from them--I played phone tag with them and then finally after alot major attitude--I came to a payment agreement of 1/2 today and 1/2 next Friday. Does anyone know if I will be able to open a checking account once this is all paid off?

Jenn--I hope with all sincerity that you got this agreement in writing, otherwise I would not pay them anything. With nothing to prove that they agreed to this, some CA's will keep trying to collect after you pay this amount.

Tell them you want it in writing or you cannot proceed, seriously, for your own protection. There is no reputable business on the planet that I can think of that would have a problem putting sush an agreement in writing for you. If they dont do it, or say that they cannot, then something is wrong.

I received a call from this number and they stated that my number was left as a contact number and would I tell the person that they owed money and it needed to be paid today or else. Is this not against the law to tell someone else about a debt owed? When I told the man that I did not know how to get hold of the other party he called me a liar and threaten to sue me for withholding information. I told him what I thought of him and hung the phone up. He immediately called back but I didn't answer.

Jenn 8376,Skydivr7673 couldn't be more correct.

Never, ever, ever, ever, agree to a payment plan unless you have it in writing prior to making the first payment! This goes for any agreement with any CA, but more so for any agreement with Il-Legal Mediation Mal-Practice! These people are, in my opinion, bigger crooks than they make debtors they are harassing out to be. You should also not give these people any banking information like a debit card number, routing/transit number, bank account number, credit card number, etc. If you are going to make a payment to them, pay the extra expense it would take in order to purchase a cashiers check or money order. I would not put it past them to attempt cleaning out your checking account if they had access to it.

And DWS, no they are not allowed to disclose information about a person's debt to a third party. The only reason they can contacts third parties is to verify contact information. Once they have done this, or if the third party tells them to stop calling them, they are not allowed to call back again. And the threat to sue you for not providing information is totally bogus, they are just trying to scare you.

If they continue to harass you after you have told them to stop file complaints with the FTC, your state's Attorney General's office, and Florida's Attorney General's office.

I called the Florida's Attorney General's office for information regarding SOL's the other day and happened to mention LMP's name to them. The lady I spoke with advised they have numerous complaints against LMP already and will be looking into them. She advised me to tell anyone that is victimized by LMP to have them file a complaint on the Florida Attorney General's website, even if they are not residents of Florida.

IS 866-601-0822 EXT 298 IS THIS ONE OF THERE NUMBERS TOO?

they called me yesterday for the same thing......but have not recieved anything by mail stating that the payday loan place turned me over to any collection company, so I told them i ould sen nothing until i got a letter in the mail

Welcome to the forum Sharonb.
Good call on your part, now by federal law they have 5 business days to mail you a standard dunning letter from the date of first contact. I would suggest sending them a debt validation letter (you can find a good template via my signature, be sure to print and send the enclosure as well) send it to them certified mail, return receipt requested. Also within the validation letter it tells them to communicate with you by mail only, no phone calls. It is best for you as you have a paper trail of all communications. If you need any further help please let me know.

Sharonb, you will most likely not receive any initial communication from LMP by mail; they seem to have a track record of never sending out the initial written communication within the first 5 days of phone contact. JCEMT is correct, you need to send them a debt validation letter as well as a Cease and Desist letter; otherwise, they will start harassing you at work, if they haven't already.

I LIVE IN TEXAS CAN THEY REALLY ARREST ME OVER THE PAYDAY LOANS?

this is bullshit these guys said they would have the cops at my house or my work by the end of the day if i didn't pay the loan in full with in 2 hours. when i called them back i asked if this is a law firm - NO. and are you an attorney, answer NO. this is just another collection agency.

this is bullshit these guys said they would have the cops at my house or my work by the end of the day if i didn't pay the loan in full with in 2 hours. when i called them back i asked if this is a law firm - NO. and are you an attorney, answer NO. this is just another collection agency.

They can't even have you arrested, in fact it is a violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act for them to make such threats.

i got a call today from the 940 number as well. threaten with coming to my work or home and requesting inforcement on me if I didnt pay by 7:30 pm. Can we do jail time for this? I asked to make small monthly pmts to pay this back, but he wanted it in full or he will call and have a request to inforce.
I want to pay this back. I never intended not to. I lost my Job and was ill and now on assit home living.
are they a debt collector? They say they arent.
:?:

Legal mediation practice is a debt collection agency. They cannot have you arrested or imprisoned. They frequently violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (which is a federal law) in their attempts to illegally collect debts.