Sheelzebub emails that “The Boston Globe is doing a spotlight report on the abusive practices of debt collectors, which includes seizing the property of people who have already paid their debts.”
One thing I found particularly outrageous, if true, is that some small-claim courts have in effect given up their role as neutral adjudicator, and instead act to rubber-stamp dubious or even blatantly false claims by debt collecting companies. Check out Sheelzebub’s post on Pinko Feminist Hellcat for more information.
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Thanks for the link!
Wow, this is awful. I thought that you had to prove delivery of summons to be able to pull this stuff. And this is appears to me in some ways to be related to how the courts treat old people without families in some jurisdictions, where random attorneys can show up in court and through some maneuvering end up with the keys to the bank accounts and other assets. Is it too difficult to fix this stuff up with legislation?
There IS legislation, it’s not being followed. Not that this is an excuse.
The problem here is really the judges, who are shirking their judicial responsibilities. Small claims is really a court of equity, which makes it even more appalling. These judges should not be allowed to serve–though that’s extremely hard to accomplish.
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Too many times these courts are places to stow judges who shouldn’t be judges but who have friends in high places or who really don’t care about doing their jobs right.