If Judge Susan Weaver has the Audacity to Run for a Second Term, Vote NO!
Judge Weaver gave my house on 40 acres to a man who put his plan to defraud me with the help of the court in writing. Judge Weaver saw the letter.
Worse, I was dismissed with prejudice, meaning on the merits, and Judge Susan Weaver of Searcy County Arkansas said that my co-defendant, my living trust, lost by default.
One attorney told me Judge Weaver just doesn’t understand subtleties in civil law. But this is not the slightest bit hard to understand.
“Arkansas recognizes the ‘common-defense doctrine,’ which holds that if two are sued jointly, one of whom makes default, and the other appears and interposes a successful defense to the action, there can be no doubt but that the plea of the one appearing, will inure to the benefit of the other, and that he will also be entitled to his discharge, notwithstanding the interlocutory judgment by default.
“The test for determining under the common-defense doctrine if an answer will inure to a co-defendant’s benefit is whether the answer of the non-defaulting defendant states a defense that is common to both defendants, because then a successful plea operates as a discharge to all the defendants, but it is otherwise where the plea goes to the personal discharge of the party interposing it.” – Gunter v. Liberty Bank of Arkansas, 92 Ark. App. 163 (2005)
It is more likely that Judge Weaver has a plan to transfer properties out of little old lady’s trusts and into the pocket of her cronies like attorney William Zac White.
Add into the fact set that the transcripts of two hearings on my case were falsified and Judge Weaver won’t allow the recordings to be played in public. That looks like a cover-up.
The real problem is that the Court of Appeals justices, Judge Billy Roy Wilson and Judge Lee P. Rudofsky have each been informed of my allegations and none have done anything I asked for or anything else I am aware of to correct the injustice.
Susan Weaver is doing a lot of damage during her time on the bench. Her victims should be compensated by the government that failed to make a timely correction. That may never happen. But the citizens of this state are right to think there is no integrity in our judiciary.
My suggestion is to vote the elected judges out of office and make certain that the federal judges are not confirmed for any promotion.
Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied: The Arkansas Court of Appeal’s Speed of Molasses Deprives Me of Justice
Judge Susan Kaye Weaver gave a property worth over $200,000 from my living trust to an irrevocable trust created by Attorney William White specifically to hold the property on behalf of his client, Mike Pietrczak.
I was named in the same suit, but dismissed with prejudice after William Zac White’s helper gave me the original handwritten, signed letter by his client that admits to committing fraud against me.
I filed two maximum length briefs in the Arkansas Court of Appeals on November 23, 2022, arguing amongst other things the Common Defense Doctrine. One was written as an individual, the other as the sole settlor, trustee and beneficiary of the trust.
The Common Defense Doctrine is precedence that “…one whose liability is dependent on, or derived from, the liability of one who is exonerated in an earlier suit…on the same facts may take advantage of the bar of the prior judgment even though he was not a party to the earlier actions or in privity with the defendant therein. Ted Saum & Company v. Swaffar, 237 Ark. 971, 377 S.W.2d 606 (1964).”
Mr. White did not bother to respond to the brief. Why should he when Susan Weaver seems to be his lap dog?
While waiting for the COA to decide if my unopposed briefs were accurate, my bank account has dwindled to nothing and I am relying on a $600 per month pension, loans and gifts to eat. (I had a writing gig that helped me pay off my loans to zero, but now I am starting to feel the pinch again.)
And really, how long will the $199,000 the fraudsters got for selling the property last? Mike Pietrczak is a lifelong drug addict and alcoholic. The trustee, Walter Pietrczak, is a broke ass loser who was a conspirator in the fraud. Seems like the money will be gone before the justices can finish scratching their heads.
That is why I asked the appellate justices to refer the case to the proper prosecutorial agencies that would handle honest services fraud. Judge Weaver could have used her favorite excuse, (I don’t know nuthin’ about nuthin’), for her absurd orders. But she conspired with Court reporter Jana Perry to falsify what was said in a couple hearings, to try to make her rulings seem legit. Then she lied in a court document by saying she listened to the recordings and the transcripts were accurate.
Incarcerating Susan Weaver will not put food on my table, but it will provide me with a happy ending to the book about Arkansas Injustice that is in my writing queue. The residual income the book generates is not restitution in any way…it is derived from my own labor. There will be some poetic justice though, in that.
If Portfolio Recovery Associates’ Lawyers Lie and Bully You, It is No Anomaly
I asked Judge Rudofsky in the Federal District Court of Eastern Arkansas to allow me my Constitutional Right to have a jury hear my genuine dispute against Portfolio Recovery Associates and their parent PRA Group, Inc. (Stock symbol PRAA)
The Trump appointed judge said that no reasonable juror can believe any of my claims is more probably than not true, except maybe the one distinct claim about the character or amount of the debt PRA alleged. Nothing about annoyance nor invasion of privacy. According to Judge R., it is perfectly acceptable for a stranger to call hundreds of times without leaving a message when you let it go to voicemail and refuse to identify what company they work for if you refuse to tell them your birthday or last four of social security number first.
There is a hearing on a defense motion to kick that one claim out by summary judgment and my motion for reconsideration of the other claims. It is by phone on May 23, 2023. I am unclear if I may give out the code for the public to listen in.
After my briefing was complete, a judge in Virginia approved a stipulated order and judgment between the CFPB and Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC. The complaint and order recount how the CFPB believes PRA did many of the same things I claimed they did to me to hundreds of thousands of other people.
Apparently Judge Rudofsky does not think the people at the CFPB are reasonable. If the CFPB staff were reasonable to believe the claims of hundreds of thousands of other alleged debtors, than a reasonable juror might believe me. And Judge Rudofsky decided that no reasonable juror might think my rendition of the collection activity claiming I owed $2,297.63 and litigation that caused PRA to set my balance to zero is more probably than not a fact.
Here is a downloadable copy of my notice and the CFPB Complaint and consent agreement with the debt collector.
What is it Worth When You Catch a Lawyer Lying: Briefs from Appeal of $83M Verdict Against Debt Buyer PRA
Portfolio Recovery Associates appealed a jury verdict of $83 million. The argument was that the Goliath debt buyer continued to sue a woman for debt that did not belong to her until after she filed a counterclaim based on the FDCPA, and the judge sanctioned the company for its abusive litigation tactics by deciding liability in favor of the alleged debtor and letting the jury decide only the damages.
An attorney for PRA said in a hearing that the debt collector thought the counterclaim would be dropped after it acknowledged the woman may not have owed a debt. (They waffled, and made their dismissal without prejudice, just in case they could find any evidence supporting their claim against the woman.) When she refused to drop her suit, the PRA Group, Inc. subsidiary fought her full force and dirty.
It sounds a lot like my personal experience with Portfolio Recovery. Unfortunately, the judge on my case, Lee P. Rudofsky says no reasonable juror can find it is particularly annoying to have the debt collector ring my phone hundreds of times and not tell me who is calling or what they are calling about until I agreed to answer interrogatories on a recorded line. Judge Rudofsky dismissed the majority of my claims.
I am busy this next three weeks preparing for a hearing on May 23, 2023 in which I hope the Court reconsiders his opinion. So, with no more ado, here are the briefs filed by both parties in the jury verdict case and an amicus brief favoring the alleged debtor. Hopefully they will help you help your clients or yourself (pro se) so you don’t have to settle for the pittance Portfolio tosses your way.
Hiding in Plain Sight: How PRA Group, Incorporated Created a Phantom Fortune from Worthless Debt
Thank you to my anonymous muse who taught me that finishing a book is not that hard. And thank you to FeFe Ford, whose encouraging comments revived my faith that my blog posts can change policy and even lives.
I don’t like to toot my own horn. But I’m going to. (Do you notice that when someone says, “I don’t want to say this”, they usually say it?)
A subsidiary of publicly traded PRA Group, Inc. told a whole bunch of lies about me and I had to go back to 2010 searching for the truth. Here is an email I found that was sent to me on the day subsidiary Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC’s attorneys certified under FRCP Rule 11 that I was getting myself into debt that I could not get myself out of. (Ironically, I was never sued for an unpaid credit card debt nor filed bankruptcy, but Attorney James Trefil, lead liar for PRA, filed for bankruptcy.)
Dear Ms. Lynn,
I sat for a few moments yesterday reading an article I just happened upon that you had written about a man that entered mine and my two daughter lives about five long years ago and we were changed in such a negative way that our world would never be the same. I couldn’t believe my eyes as I was reading about the wrecker who has done so much damage to our family and tears seemed to leak out of my eyes and began to roll down my cheeks and I felt a kind of sorrow because I hadn’t found this site earlier, but at the same time a weight seemed to lift from within me. This must sound strange to you and very emotional but I feel this way because it kind of sounds like the monsters in the closets are about to be exposed? You must already have heard so many unbelievable accounts of what Mr. Bill [Attorney William Spillar, Jr.] and his entourage has done and are capable of I’m sure. I hope with all my heart and soul that what is right and fair happens to the wicked players in that family law court (Torrance Superior Family Law Dept J) as they are exposed for whom and what they really are and all the damage did to so many children and parents. If you ever want our account of what happened to us please don’t hesitate to ask via email. Keep up the good work and let me know if I can be of any help. Thank You!
Bird
The fight against unethical and arguably illegal activity of debt collectors is not as heart wrenching as trying to reunite children with their loving parents. But many of the ills that befall those parents are economic. The destruction of their careers, mental health and credit make it difficult to afford already prohibitive legal fees and the distraught parents are forced to challenge pedigreed and unethical lawyers through self-representation.
The next book I am writing is titled “Hiding in Plain Sight: How PRA Group, Incorporated Created a Phantom Fortune from Worthless Debt”.
Please contribute to my effort by emailing file stamped copies of litigation documents involving Portfolio Recovery Associates or any other PRA Group subsidiary to TheNext55Years@gmail.com. The email I used for the California family court communications was bohemian_books@yahoo.com. My intention when I created the gmail account was to leave my stressful past behind. Tell God your plans…lol.
Snail mail can be sent to Laura Hammett, 16 Gold Lake Club Road, Conway, Arkansas, 72032.
Portfolio Recovery Associates’ Attorneys Are Sharks
“Balls of Crystal and Steel: What it Takes to Play Poker Without Losing Your Assets”, the book I co-authored with my son Sean Lynn, is available on Amazon. It is a fun anecdotal romp through the mind of a poker genius (my son) and a nitty old lady (me).
Y’all probably know poker is a passion with me. It puts me in a meditative state and calms my soul.
In poker, amateurs are called “fish” and those that eat them up are called “sharks”.
Sean is a shark.
Here is an excerpt from one of the stories he contributed:
“This old man is really lost, he just decided to take up poker and is here playing 1/3 no limit because there isn’t a 2/4 fixed limit anywhere around. He brings a little cheat sheet to the casino every time that has the hand rankings on it; straight flush at the top, then quads, three of a kind, two pair. As confusing as it is to remember if trips beats a straight or not, if he really doesn’t have that stuff memorized I know he doesn’t know the odds of anything.”
One of my stories that did not make it into Balls was about my first trip to a card room. It was in Commerce, California. Sean brought me.
As we walked through the parking lot, I asked him again, “so, two pairs beats what? What if I have a straight and someone else has a full house?”
“Mom…”, exasperated, “look at your two cards and say ‘fold’. Unless you look at your two cards and see two aces. Then say ‘all in’ and push all your chips forward.”
My play really hasn’t changed much from that night.
Lawyers for debt buyer Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC are the sharks of law. The lawyers I am up against on my FDCPA, invasion of privacy and outrage case against PRA Group, Inc’s subsidiary are from Rose Law Firm and Troutman Sanders, LLP. Plus PRA has an inhouse litigation team hundreds strong.
I need a cheat sheet for everything I do in court.
SPOILER ALERT: The old man won the hand against Sean. It was crazy. You’ve got to read the whole chapter.
The title: When you’re ahead, you’re ahead.*
Buy the book here.
*You may still lose if the dealer looks at your royal flush and says you mucked your cards. Then you have to go to the pit boss and then the Gaming Commission and hope for the right thing to be done.
Trial that Led to $83 Million Verdict Against Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC Because of Abusive Litigation
You: Portfolio Recovery Associates called me over and over again about a debt I did not owe.
You: I owed a debt on a credit card and Portfolio Recovery called me incessantly because I refused to talk to them.
You: How do I make PRA stop calling me?
There is a law that is supposed to protect people from abusive debt collection practices. It is called the FDCPA and is codified as 15 USC 1692.
I say supposed to, because there are judges, such as Lee P. Rudofsky in the Federal District Court of Eastern Arkansas who determine what is “abusive”, “invasive” or “outrageous” without letting a jury decide.
There are other judges, such as Joel P. Fahnestock, a circuit court judge in Missouri who allowed an FDCPA case to proceed to a jury trial over the issue of damages. Judge Fahnestock made the decision that Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC violated the FDCPA as a discovery sanction. The judge did not appreciate how PRA was evasive during the FDCPA litigation discovery.
If you have a potential FDCPA case against a debt buyer, and your experience is like mine, the majority of attorneys will advise you to take the $1,000 or $5,000 settlement offer proffered by the billion-dollar company.
I decided to take PRA on myself, pro se. I want a jury to decide what punitive damages should be charged to deter Portfolio Recovery from continuing conduct that I and the CFPB find abusive.
The Goliath company that has hundreds of in-house litigation employees and hires firms such as Rose Law, of Hillary Clinton fame, fights dirty. They lie in court.
My fight is getting easier as I collect documents from prior cases against the debt collector. Hopefully you come across this blog early in your proceedings and can be guided by the work of a few excellent attorneys who didn’t go along with the PRA program.
Here is the entire transcript of a trial for which an $83,000,000 verdict was awarded against Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC.
(PRA appealed, then reached a settlement before the appellate court made a decision.)
Top Secret: Hearing in Front of Judge Lee P. Rudofsky May Be.
Federal District Court Judge Lee P. Rudofsky has agreed to hold a hearing to discuss the pending motions for summary judgment and reconsideration of an earlier order granting summary judgement in Hammett v. Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC and Does on May 23, 2023 at 9 a.m. Central time. [UPDATE: Hearing Continued]
The hearing is by telephone and I made an inquiry of the Judge’s clerk as to whether I may share the access code with the public. Sorry, no response yet, but you will be the second to know.
The hearing should be interesting. I hope to discuss the as yet unsigned Consent Order filed March 23, 2023 between PRA and the CFPB [UPDATE. The Order was signed April 16, 2023]; new caselaw that finds that destroying evidence such as business records, even before a lawsuit is filed if the evidence can be expected to be used for litigation, carries the negative inference that is associated with spoliation of evidence; and the $82M punitive damage award against Portfolio Recovery for doing a similar thing to a woman in Missouri.
I may not have time to file a motion for clarification as to whether the hearing can be accessed by the public. The clerk still did not respond to my email inquiry. Sorry.
If you want the access code, please ask the court.
How Many Reasons do Courts Have to Show Favoritism to Debt Buyers? About a Hundred Million Reasons.
Old credit card debt is often sold to a junk debt buyer for pennies on the dollar. The debt buyer makes approximately 30% of its revenue from alleged debt collected through legal proceedings. A vice president for one of the most active debt buyers in the nation, Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC, said of the judgements obtained, 90% are by default.
Some of the no shows owe the debt. But many cannot take off work, don’t understand the process, do not actually receive a summons, or may even be dead.
But PRA is notorious for bringing actions against alleged debtors on debt that cannot be verified, and even worse, that PRA knows is from inaccurate records. The majority of the time that an alleged debtor shows up to court, the case is dismissed. Ooops, says PRA, my bad.
Why do the judges not require the unopposed debt buyer to show at least a minimal amount of old account level documentation that shows when debt was supposedly incurred and where? This is as simple as showing the account statements from the last time the account was zero until it was at the current balance.
The judge would not need to look at every entry. A spattering would do.
Call me a cynic. I think the courts like the income from the litigious collectors.
Portfolio Recovery Associates is a wholly owned subsidiary of PRA Group, Inc, a publicly traded company that has the symbol PRAA.
In PRA Group’s consolidated financial statement for 2021, Total Portfolio Revenue shows as $1,073,231,000. Of that, $78.3 million was “costs paid to courts where a lawsuit is filed for the purpose of attempting to collect on an account.” In 2020, the costs paid to courts was over $100,000,000, about 9% of revenue.
I’m not saying a debt buyer walks into a judge’s chambers with a briefcase full of cash and walks out empty handed.
I’m just wondering if the courts would put a little more consideration into their decisions if it was the alleged debtor who kept the court lights on and paid the staff’s salaries.
A Higher Law 