Get 100 FREE Law Articles Per Month from the American Bar Association

Students, lawyers and researchers are allowed to sign up for 100 free articles per month from the American Bar Association. It is easy. Go to http://www.jstor.org.

My first free read was an article about debt buyers’ bad practices, including specific problems with Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC.

The Debt Buyers: Lax Court Review and a Ravenous Industry are Burying Defendants in Defaults. Terry Carter, ABA Journal, Vol. 101, No. 11 (November 2015), pp. 54 – 61.

One of my key takeaways pertained to a default judgment against a trust that was sued as a common defense doctrine defendant with me. I prevailed on that case, being dismissed with prejudice by the plaintiff, after the plaintiff’s attorney produced a handwritten and signed letter that described how the plaintiff and his attorney intended to file a fraudulent lawsuit against me and the trust.

Judge Susan Weaver in Searcy County Arkansas saw the letter and granted default judgment against the unrepresented trust anyhow.

In the ABA article, Judge Lisa Mayne is quoted. “The law is clear that a judge can’t grant a default when there’s no valid claim.”

The Arkansas Court of Appeals has had an appeal of the default judgment against the trust sitting on their collective desk for almost a year.

Hopefully you will also find informative and useful information from the free treasure trove of articles at http://www.jstor.org.