Hess Kennedy Receivership Redux
Date: Tue, 02/23/2010 - 08:31
The strategy was to use the Fair Credit Billing Act and the Common Law to place the accounts in dispute and then sue the banks and their debt collectors when they violated the law. This was part of their debt settlement program and NOT their debt management program.
Remember, debt settlement is where NO payments are made to creditors until such time as the creditor or their debt collectors accept a lump sum settlement. In furtherance of this strategy, Hess Kennedy defended credit card lawsuits, sued banks and debt collectors, and initiated claims in the National Arbitration Forum.
Each time an award was entered AGAINST a Hess Kennedy client in the National Arbitration Forum, Hess Kennedy would file an attorney general complaint with the Minnesota Attorney General as well as with the Georgia Attorney General against Mann Bracken, the Debt Collection law firm that filed Arbitration Claims on behalf of the banks.
Hess Kennedy currently has 65,000 clients involved in Debt Management Plans with zero (0) complaints.
Hess Kennedy had 19,000 debt settlement clients with 327 complaints most of which were because the client thought they were in a debt management plan.
Hess Kennedy eliminated an excess of $200,000,000 (two hundred million) of debt with their debt settlement programs and obtained an excess of $1,000,000 in awards in the National Arbitration Forum and state and federal courts pursuant to claims filed for violations of the Fair Credit Billing Act and the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
On July 17, 2007, the State of Florida placed Hess Kennedy into receivership based upon the 327 complaints out of 90,000 clients.
Lewis B. Freeman and Partners was the firm that controlled the receivership and Rothstein, Rosenfeldt, Adler was the attorney representing Hess Kennedy. Since that day, it was determined that:
1. Hess Kennedy shared legal fees with non-lawyers.
2. Hess Kennedy marketed legal services in violation of the Florida Bar rules.
That is it. The State of Florida is allowing the Debt Management Business to operate and is earning over $325,000 per month in net operating revenue that Daniel J. Stermer, a Principal of Lewis B. Freeman and Partners is "administering" with his attorneys Berger Singerman.
Daniel pays himself a nice fee of $350 per hour and Berger Singerman pays themselves the same. Okay, now, since then:
1. The National Arbitration Forum was sued by the Attorney General and can NEVER handle a credit card arbitration again.
2. Lewis B. Freeman and Partners was raided by the FBI and just today he was charged with "Stealing from the bank accounts that he oversaw as receiver."
3. Rothstein Rosenfeldt and Adler was placed into Bankrutpcy after it was determined that they were running a $2,200,000,000 ponzi scheme.
4. Mann Bracken was shut down and liquidated on Monday.
5. New rules went into effect against credit card companies because their violations of the Fair Credit Billing Act and Truth in Lending Act.
Attorneys across the nation are using the strategies that Hess Kennedy developed not only to deal with credit cards but to also fight foreclosure.
What a world.
ain't that something. Guess Hess Kennedy did something right af
ain't that something. Guess Hess Kennedy did something right afterall. Sometimes it doesn't pay to be a pioneer...
But, that's it THEY aren't attorneys (although two of its princi
But, that's it THEY aren't attorneys (although two of its principals were lawyers, the persons actually supposed to be settling the debts weren't), and shouldn't have represented to their clients that they were. They were still a shady company. Let me explain why. Consumers weren't dumb. Hess Kennedy employees represented that they would settle consumers debts for less than the actual debt (this is actually how the debt settlement process works, and in fact consumers could have did this themselves). It was reasonable to believe in lieu of the time sensitive nature of resolving debts (persons were being threatened with lawsuits, homes foreclosed, credit cards charging off) that Hess Kennedy was legally chartered to take action against credit card companies to resolve the debts. They weren't. Hess Kennedy would take consumers initial payments, then when consumers found out that money wasn't being paid to their creditors because their creditors were still calling them, Hess Kennedy would state that the money was being put into a "trust" that had to be built up in order for the creditors to be paid, and that consumers should ignore their creditors because the consumers were being represented by Hess Kennedy. This was very bad advice, and companies that do debt settlement know this.
What happened is that many credit card companies themselves began warning consumers to not deal with companies like Hess Kennedy, and negotiate with the credit card companies or their other creditors directly to resolve their debts.
The point is Hess Kennedy didn't do what it stated it would do, they were a fraudulent company and that is why the government has shut them down. They definitely pioneered something, alright......how to successfully rip consumers off.
Debt counseling/management teaches people how to pay off their debts (people often have bad spending habits, and that's what debt counselors are paid to do)
Debt settlement (as the name speaks for itself, requires the company you contract with to take action on YOUR part) There are only a few 100 or so companies who are legally authorized and chartered to do so. That information wasn't not known to the consumers who got ripped off by Hess Kennedy, and alike