In what is likely continuing fallout from Linda Almonte’s whistleblower suits, JP Morgan Chase voluntarily dismissed thousands of lawsuits seeking to collect credit card accounts reportedly because of “irregularities” in the documents used to support the lawsuit.
It appears that Chase relied on a very “select” group of persons to sign a large volume of affidavits in support of the banks credit card lawsuits. Reports do not indicate whether this robo-signing practices arise from the bank’s acquisition of Providian / WaMu or are more widespread. The drastic actions taken by the bank indicate that the problem was not isolated to the Providian credit card portfolio which attracted national publicity.
J.P. Morgan Chase collects credit card accounts through a network of in-house lawyers located in Chase’s offices throughout the country. JPMorgan Chase apparently has systemic deficiencies in its record keeping as demonstrated by what should have been a run of the mill collection case (pun intended) in Volusia County, Florida.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. plans to lay off the in-house lawyers who presently file the credit card collection lawsuits for the bank and shut down such operations by the end of 2011.
Under most states’ laws, a dismissal without prejudice would not bar the bank or, more likely, an assignee from filing a second lawsuit attempting to collect the account.
Junk debt buyers who file lawsuits seeking to collect credit card debts often attempt to use hearsay evidence to support the amount of their claim, the terms of the account, or even their alleged ownership of the account. I can not count the number of times I’ve heard junk debt buyers’ counsel argue that the banks’ records are trust worthy because banks are highly regulated and that court should give the banks’ records deference. Huh? Aren’t these the same banksters that, once left to their own devices, almost wrecked the world economy?
These accounts will likely fade away because of the well publicized documentation problems and, eventually, the statute of limitations.
Thanks again to Linda Almonte for having the courage to confront J.P. Morgan Chase’s management and exposing the bank’s “business model”.
(C) 2011 Donald E Petersen
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