Fowler, Hein, Cheatwood & Williams, P.A. Hit with FDCPA Lawsuit

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Atlanta, Georgia-based law firm Fowler, Hein, Cheatwood & Williams, P.A., and J. Mike Williams are the defendants in a proposed class action lawsuit filed over alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). The case notes that Williams is the licensed attorney who signed the dispossessory warrant at the heart of the lawsuit.

The plaintiff reportedly entered into an apartment rental contract in May 2016 that required rent to be paid before the sixth day of each month, with non-payment resulting in a late fee. The suit claims that in December 2016, the plaintiff refused to pay his rent due to flooding at the apartment complex. In response, the property management company with which the plaintiff signed his rental contract retained the defendants to file a dispossessory warrant to attempt to remove the man from his apartment and collect monetary damages, which included the unpaid rent and other associated fees. After the judge overseeing the matter eventually granted the landlord possession, with it came a “large offset of the rent that was being demanded” in the plaintiff’s favor.

The plaintiff argues that Williams and the law firm, in its dispossessory warrant, demanded late fees that exceeded those allowable by his rental contract. In fact, the case argues in the year prior to the filing of this lawsuit, the defendants filed dispossessory warrants against “more than one hundred individuals” in DeKalb County, with many of which demanding excessive late fees.