The Just Us System

Here is a weird thing I noticed when I was researching for an FDCPA claim I brought against a debt buyer called Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC:

Similar cases that are brought by attorneys settle for about $1,000 to $5,000 per plaintiff with $20,000 to the attorney who filed the case. I have seen cases that did not settle quickly, where the plaintiffs got about $10,000 and the attorneys got $200,000.

Portfolio Recovery Associates gave me offers of judgment for $1,000 and $5,000. I told them no.

Filing the average case is not rocket science. The attorneys who specialize in consumer protection law can probably write and file a case in 35 minutes.

So, why do the attorneys earn disproportionately more than a litigant who is willing to do the paperwork on her own? Doesn’t that incentivize the lawyers to settle quickly and often, instead of working hard to get to trial? If one or two people make it to trial and a jury awards significant punitive damages, Boom! PRA and its ilk will need to find a different way to harass and rip off the rest of us.