"January 2016"--Table of contents page. "This report was researched and written by Chris Albin-Lackey, Senior Legal Advisor at Human Rights Watch"--Acknowledgments. Includes bibliographical references.
Contents:
Acknowledgments. Methodology -- Background: The United States' Debt Buying Industry -- To Banks and other Creditors -- Debt Buyer Lawsuits and Poverty -- Runaway Interest and Costs -- Allegations of Error and Abuse in Debt Buyer Litigation -- Rubber Stamp Justice: Default Judgments without Evidence or Scrutiny: The Default Judgment Problem: Where are the Defendants? -- Confusion and Misinformation -- Concerns about Notice -- Rubber Stamp Justice: The Absence of Judicial Scrutiny: Questionable Records and the Problem of Warranty -- Allegations of "Robo-Signing" -- Sky-High Interest and Questionable Math -- Corporate Plaintiffs in the "People's Court" -- Thrown to the Wolves: Unrepresented Defendants in Court: Pushing Defendants into Coercive and Unequal "Negotiations" -- "Judgeless Courtrooms" -- Their Day in Court: Representational Inequality and "Cattle Calls" -- The Importance of Legal Representation and Advice -- Recommendations for Governments, Courts, and Debt Buyers: No More Rubber Stamp Default Judgments -- Protect Defendants from Coercive "Negotiations" with Debt Buyer Attorneys -- Level the Playing Field with Free Legal Assistance -- Sharply Limit Interest Rates in Debt Buyer Cases -- The Human Rights Responsibilities of Courts, State Governments, and Debt Buyers: Consumer Protections under US Federal Law -- Court Integrity and the Rights of Disadvantaged Litigants -- The Human Rights Responsibilities of Debt Buying Firms -- Recommendations: To State Governments -- To All State Court Systems -- To Individual Courts Adjudicating Debt Buyer Cases -- To the US Federal Government -- To Debt Buying Companies -- To DBA International -- To Banks and other Creditors -- Acknowledgments.
Summary:
"Courts in jurisdictions across the United States have failed to protect the rights of poor people sued by multibillion dollar debt-buying corporations. Debt buyers -- firms that buy up delinquent debt for pennies on the dollar and then try to collect the full face value plus interests through a variety of means including litigation -- file hundreds of thousands of lawsuits against US consumers every year. Rubber Stamp Justice details the response of courts in such cases, and their failure to effectively confront frequent instances of error, legal deficiency, defective service and other problems. Many of the people debt-buying companies sue are poor and do not know their rights, and almost none have lawyers. Yet many courts have done little or nothing to ensure that the lawsuits have factual or legal merit, or to correct the profound imbalances of power facing mainly unrepresented defendants. Some have in fact erected formidable barriers to defendants who simply want a meaningful day in court in front of a judge. The report is based on interviews with people sued by debt buyers, debt-buyer industry representatives, judges, attorneys, and other key stakeholders, as well as empirical data on caseloads obtained by Human Rights Watch. It argues that by handing out judgements to debt-buying companies without sufficient and proper evidence or scrutiny, courts have put the rights of poor defendants as well as their own basic integrity at risk. It concludes with pragmatic recommendations that courts, state legislatures, and the US federal government should take to address the injustice"--Page [4] of cover.
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