- Midland Funding, LLC
- An abusive debt collection firm that engages in the bulk purchase of defaulted consumer credit card debt. Midland Funding, LLC is owned by Encore Capital Group.
- Midland Credit Management
- An abusive debt collection firm that engages in the bulk purchase of defaulted consumer credit card debt. Midland Credit Management, like Midland Funding, LLC is owned by Encore Capital Group.
- A predatory financial institution that operates through a number of owned companies, including Midland Funding, LLC, Midland Credit Management, Inc. and others. Cumulatively, these companies constitute a super-predator that has become a finance industry powerhouse by exploiting consumers through immoral and illegal litigation mill tactics. These tactics primarily depend upon consumers remaining ignorant and failing to properly respond when sued.
Preliminarily, Distinguish Between Being Sued and Receiving a Letter
This article primarily addresses what to do when you have been sued. Being sued is different than simply receiving a collection letter. If you have been sued, then probably somebody came to your door and handed papers to you. Whether you were personally served or not, the papers look different than an ordinary letter, and one of the papers will say that it is a “Summons”. Alternatively, if you simply received a letter in the mail, and it looks like an ordinary letter, it is not the same as a lawsuit, i.e., it is not the same as being sued. You can check out my thoughts about responding to simple collection letters, here. Let’s say you’ve concluded that, yes, Midland has indeed sued you. There is a lot you can do to prevent these scoundrels from getting your money. A good place to start is by avoiding the following common mistakes:-
Failing to File a Written Response With the Court Within 30 Days of Being Sued by Midland Funding
When people get served with a stack of legal papers and freak out and panic instead of reading the papers. Here is what they miss: The first full paragraph on the summons says in part “the court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days.” And so it is. If you don’t file a properly formatted response within 30 days, the debt collector can easily obtain a “default judgment” against you almost immediately. File a timely response. -
Filing a Response When You Are Sued by Midland Funding, LLC that Says Way Too Much (of All the Wrong Things)
It’s sort of the opposite extreme from the people who ignore the problem entirely. People who make this mistake, seem to assume they are obligated to vomit a confessional of their entire financial history into the public court record, including an often erroneous admission that the debt collector is entitled to every penny they asked for. The fact is, there is usually no way to know precisely what the debt collector is legally entitled to, without seeing the underlying documentation. What should a proper response say? That will be the subject of another day. -
Failing to Respond a Request for Admissions Served by Midland Funding, LLC.
During the course of a lawsuit, there is something called “discovery” which is a formal opportunity for each side to give written requests for information to the other side. A lot of consumers think that if they receive such discovery requests for information, it is something they can blow off. Indeed, it is very tempting to blow it off, because responding to discovery requests can be a big hassle. However , there are consequences to ignoring discovery requests. The biggest consequence concerns requests for admission: If you ignore requests for admission, the debt collector can ask for the court to “deem admitted” anything that they were asking you to admit. Normally, this involves “deeming admitted” every fact that the debt collector needs, to get a judgment. Information on how to interpret and respond to requests for admission, is a topic I hope to cover in a later post. -
Making a Payment on a Debt That is in Litigation.
If you were sued by Midland Funding on a credit card debt, that means Midland Funding is already trying to beat you up anyway, so there is no point in giving the bully your lunch money. Half the time, consumers were already trying to work with the creditor before getting sued by Midland Funding. Then they got sued anyway. Once Midland Funding sues you, make them pry it out of your dead hand if they want it. If you feel you must negotiate an end to the hostilities, then do so in a way that resolves the debt and the case, and then you pay in accordance with the resulting written terms. You certainly have no reason to pay Midland Funding any money you receive a written guarantee such payment will make the problem go away. -
Failing to Object When Midland Funding, LLC Relies Upon Inadmissible Evidence in Court.
Frankly, it’s difficult to coach you on this one in a short blog post, but the bottom line is this: Probably the majority of the evidence that Midland Funding relies upon in court is objectionable and would be excluded from consideration by a competent court if only the consumer made the proper objections to evidence.