Lawsuit: Debt Collectors Offered Settlement Options with ‘Arbitrary’ Deadlines

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A New York consumer claims in a proposed class action that Midland Credit Management, Inc., Midland Funding, LLC, and Encore Capital Group, Inc. offered him several settlement options with “illusory and arbitrary deadlines.”

The case focuses on collection letters sent to the plaintiff in December 2017 and February 2018. The notices, the lawsuit says, contained the same three settlement offers yet each came with different deadlines by which the plaintiff was required to submit payment. According to the suit, the defendants intended to coerce the plaintiff into making a payment by falsely suggesting that the settlement offers had a time limit. From the complaint:

“Defendants' letters contained offers to settle by a specified date and made it appear that such an offer is a ‘one-time, take-it-or-leave-it offer,’ when in fact the debt holder is prepared to make other offers after the expiration date, the letter contains a false statement in violation of the [Fair Debt Collection Practices Act].”