ABOVE THE LAW --- Legalized Loansharking
FOR FUN AND PROFIT

Wanna get rich quick? Just go buy some charged off credit card debt from a national bank for pennies on the dollar, farm it out to a collection mill masquerading as a law firm, harass the hapless debtor with phone calls and threats of litigation, and file suit when you’ve squeezed out their last dime but there’s still a few cents left. Put a lien on their home and garnish their wages when they don’t file an answer and you get a judgment by default.

Welcome to the world of the Debt Scavenger. If you’re good enough at it, you can make so much money that your company might get listed on NASDAQ. Never mind that your profits are pulled from the pockets of the elderly, the ill, and the ignorant --- they should have known better than to incur a debt they couldn’t pay.

LAW STUDENTS NEEDED FOR
THE COLLECTION DEFENSE PROJECT

The Collection Defense Project focuses on fighting debt scavengers and junk debt buyers, those modern-day Reverse Robin Hoods who take from the poor and give to the rich. Student volunteers will work exclusively for clients pre-qualified by the New Orleans Pro Bono Project or referred by the Loyola Law Clinic, and will be exposed to cutting edge consumer law issues, including:

• the one-sided, anti-consumer, special-interest laws enjoyed by national and state banks

• the adhesionary contracts and foreign-state choice of law designations that form the basis of the creditor-debtor relationship

• the binding mandatory arbitration provisions that deprive consumers of meaningful discovery and their constitutional right of access to the court

• the use and abuse of the Louisiana open accounts statute to obtain default judgments by affidavit

• the routine failure of some state and parish courts to follow the Code of Evidence as to hearsay exceptions, document authentication, and business record admissibility

• the need for reform and strengthening of Louisiana’s Unfair Trade Practice Act

• the failure of the legislature to adopt meaningful exemption from seizure laws