Don’t Let Portfolio Recovery Associates Bully You

You try to sue PRA Group, Inc’s wholly owned subsidiary for misrepresenting the amount or character of a debt it tried to collect. Or, you owed a debt, but asked PRA to stop calling you and it refused. Or, as with me, PRA refused to identify itself meaningfully, unless you would answer interrogatories on a recorded line.

Instead of letting a jury decide what the damages are, PRA tries to bully you into settlement. Most plaintiff’s attorneys who work on contingency suggest you settle for $1,000 or $5,000 and they collect $25,000 in attorney’s fees. That doesn’t seem right to you.

When you refuse to settle for the set amount, PRA digs into your personal life and makes thinly veiled threats to share your personal information with the world. The litigious debt buyer might “accidentally” post your unredacted credit report online. They did that to me. They might tell the world that you have no social security number, like they did to Guadalupe Mejia. Ms. Mejia was awarded $250,000 in emotional distress and $82 Million in punitive damages by a jury, so PRA does not always get away with their bad conduct.

If there is nothing really juicy to use to blackmail you into settlement, PRA just makes shit up. They invented a story about me that I am a degenerate poker player who lost everything playing in illegal games online. The truth is that I play like a nitty old lady and the vast majority of the time I play for fake money starting with the free promotional chips on Zynga and Poker Bros.

Please don’t give up.

Report the abusive litigation conduct to the CFPB. When you begin your report, you will be asked to choose from several categories of bad conduct. Taking advantage of uneven bargaining power in an FDCPA case is not an option. What I did was to choose one of the things that led me to file my suit. Then I told the CFPB in the opening of my narrative that my main concern was the bullying during my lawsuit.

Judge Lee Rudofsky who presided on my case is anti-consumer and anti-CFPB. His decisions forced me into appeal. Looking through all my filings in preparation reminds me of the pain PRA inflicted on me in an attempt to continue business as usual. Here is one document that you can download FREE.