Debt buyers pay pennies on the dollar for the right to collect delinquent credit card balances and other consumer debt, but they do not often pay the creditor for the back-up documentation. After a lawsuit is filed in Florida, if the consumer’s attorney requests that such documentation be produced, and the debt buyer fails to do so, the lawsuit can be dismissed. In Florida, documentation upon which the claim relies must be attached to the initial Complaint but it often is missing. Since most cases go unchallenged, the debt buyer gets a judgment without having proved its case.
However, more consumers are recognizing that hiring an attorney to defend a debt buyer’s lawsuit can help. As a result there is an uptick in dismissals is resulting from the assembly line debt buyer lawsuits. One of the frequent approaches taken by consumer’s counsel is that they ask for the affidavits upon which the debt buyers rely to prove up the debt be stricken when the supporting documentation is not provided. In Florida, all affidavits used in connection with summary judgment must attach the books and records upon which the affiant reviewed and relied. In some cases, the documentation is contracdictory such as in an alleged assignment of the debt where the assignment does not exist or it is faulty. Riddle v. Unifund CCR Partners, 298 S.W. 3d 780 (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).
Affidavits can also be challenged for admissibility when the business records exception to hearsay is found to not apply. Many counsel skip over challenging the application of the business records exception, but it can be a very valuable tool. For instance a Missouri appellate decision in Asset Acceptance v. Lodge, 2010 WL 3759538 (Mo. Ct. App. Sept. 28, 2010), stated:
The qualification of records within the business records exception to the hearsay rule requires testimony as to the mode of preparation of the record and that it was made at or near the time of the act, condition or event it purports to show …The business recrods exception to the hearsay rule applies only to documents generated by the business itself. Thus, documents that are part of a file belonging to a holder’s business but were not generated or prepared by the holder in the holder’s ordinary course of business do not fall under the business records exception… [The debt buyer] did not prepare the documetns in question, but rather only received the documents from HSBC and held them in their files.
A recent appellate decision in Wisconsin came to a similar conclusion by stating that a witness must have personal knowledge about how the records were made so that the witness is qualified to testify that they were made at or near the time of the event, by or from information transmitted by, a person with knowledge. Palisades Collection, LLC v. Kalal, 781 N.W.2d 503 (Wis. Ct. App. 2010).
For additional information, please go to the website for Arkovich Law