From the NY Times:The phone rang. A woman from a law firm representing a collection agency wanted to know if Mark Hoyte was Mark Hoyte, and he said he was. They were calling to collect.
Mr. Hoyte said he never had that credit card.
Then the woman wanted to know if his Social Security number ended in 92, and Mr. Hoyte said no, it ended in 33.
“She says to me, ‘Your date of birth is in 1972,’ ” Mr. Hoyte, 46, recalled in an interview.
Clearly, they had the wrong Mark Hoyte. But that did not stop the lawyers at Pressler & Pressler from suing him. They swore out a complaint and sent a summons to Mr. Hoyte, ordering him to be in court last Monday.
Then things took a rare turn.
The judge turned to Mr. Hoyte, who works as a building superintendent, and asked him how much a day of lost pay would cost. Mr. Hoyte said $115.
“Do you think that’s fair?” Judge Dear asked Mr. Wang. “That he should lose a day’s pay?”
“My personal opinion,” Mr. Wang said, “would not be relevant to the application being sought.”
The judge said he was prepared to dismiss the case and wanted Mr. Hoyte compensated for lost wages.
10 comments:
The journalist had a great line in that article:
"Alice had reached Wonderland: The lawyer who had sued the wrong man was blaming the wrong man for getting sued".
There are plenty of deceitful debtors out there that deserve to get sued and to lose. I dont sympathize with them.
But if a debt collector drags an innocent to court because of their own negligence, they should have to pony up - big time. Woops, sorry, wrong guy, is not an excuse from debtor/lawyers like this.
Its good to see a gentleman coming to court, when he shouldnt have had to, and embarrassing this crapbag law firm.
I am wary of a judge making up penalties, but NY law needs to assist people who have been targeted by unscrupulous collection agencies.
Anonymous said:
"I am wary of a judge making up penalties, but NY law needs to assist people who have been targeted by unscrupulous collection agencies."
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We had better all be wary of ANY official inventing new "feelgood" laws.
The judge had the power to disbar the attorney on the spot and fine him a massive amount.
No invention of new law. Routine application of everyday law.
But the judge didn't want the law firm mad at him for the one day that he would be out looking for a new job.
And a new job is what he needs.
"he judge had the power to disbar the attorney on the spot and fine him a massive amount."
Where on do you come up with this nonsense?
Destroying a person's credit can ruin a person's life. Regardless of what the judge does, the guy is screwed - all bc some maggot law firm and collection agency refused to do their due diligence. Rot in hell.
Anonymous said...
"he judge had the power to disbar the attorney on the spot and fine him a massive amount."
Where on do you come up with this nonsense?
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Look it up.
The exact thing happened to a coworker of mine. Her address, social security number, date of birth and age were all different from the debtor's, but she still had to go to court to get money illegally withheld from her wages returned to her.
They just don't care whether they have the right person or not. Here is a true story about debt collectors bothering a woman night and day for years who did not even have the same name!
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2143777/when_debt_collectors_wont_let_go.html?cat=3
"Where on do you come up with this nonsense?
Look it up."
I don't have to. Only the Appellate Division can disbar an attorney, and only after due process. Not a trial court judge. You think you're all that, but you sure ain't.
They also wasted the court's time due to their incompetence. This should not have had to go to court. People are simply too stupid to comprehend information presented to them--in this case I am talking about the debt collector. The judge should also have made them reimburse the man for a credit monitoring service so that he could monitor his scores and activity without having to pay for it.
What happened to this man can happen to anyone, so thanks, Crappy, for posting this.
This is actually quite common. It costs next to nothing for the debt collector to file the claim. Even if the summons to court is served correctly, often the mis-identified person calls the debt collector and is told -- "ok, you don't have to appear". Then the debt collector gets a default judgment against the mis-identified person. The rules are (1) go to court right away and file an answer denying the claim (2) debt collectors will only lie to you so (3) only reveal the facts to the court and not to guy suing you.
I am going through the same thing with mistaken identity in Tx. The guy lives in Dallas, Tx, has a totally different last name then mine and I live 400 miles away from Dallas. The debt is from a Bally's Totall Fitness which I have never been a member of. They have already committed fraud by adding this crap to my credit report but I have had it removed through Trans Union. I sent a verify/validate the debt letter and explained it was mistaken identity to the 1st collector (Academy Collection), never heard from them again so they sold the debt to another collector (Northland Group) and now am dealing with them. I called and tried to explain the situation but the collector rep tells me I was adopted and wanted my ssn#. Then he lies and says that it matches when I never gave it to him at all. Asked him how he got my ssn# without me telling him and he tells me he did a search on my name and it came up. I am like no, you are reading over my credit report ahole. Got me a little paranoid about identity theft but ff someone stole my ssn# then there would be accounts opened up, my credit ruined, and also I could see earnings on my yearly ssn statement. This has been going on since 2006, had enough so now I laweryed up. Sad that an innocent person can be picked on and have to pay money for a lawyer to free their name. I spoke with a Trans Union rep, they told me these debt collectors only try to match partial information and will send this in to the credit bureaus and add it to credit reports. Bunch of BS! I hope in the end my lawyer sticks it to them and I really dont care to see any money. I want peace of mind and this to be over.
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