Law Firm Hit with Class Action Lawsuit Over Debt Collection Letters

A New Jersey woman has filed a class action lawsuit against Zucker, Goldberg & Ackerman, LLC alleging that the law firm violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by sending out collection notices for Wells Fargo Bank that didn’t include instructions about how individuals could dispute the debt if they didn’t think it was valid.

Plaintiff Elizabeth Perry filed the class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey for her and all others who were sent notices from Zucker regarding a debt owed to Well Fargo, but “did not contain a validation notice” as required by federal law. The proposed Class consists of anyone who received such a letter one year prior to when the lawsuit was filed on Dec. 19, 2013.

Perry believes the Class could include hundreds or thousands of other consumers who also received similar notices.

Zucker works for Wells Fargo to collect debts that were “incurred for personal, family or household purposes on behalf of creditors using the United States Postal Services, telephone and internet,” the class action lawsuit says.

Perry claims that she received a letter from Zucker on March 12, 2013, after she defaulted on the home mortgage she purchased through Wells Fargo, telling her that her “‘ loan file has been referred to our attorneys with instructions to begin foreclosure proceedings . . . If you have any questions, please contact our attorney list below. Zucker, Goldberg & Ackerman . . . .”

On April 3, 2013, Zucker sent another letter asking Perry to pay the debt that she owed, and presented a variety of options by which Perry could proceed to bring the debt current.

However, the letter did not include legally required language that is supposed to be included in debt collection correspondence, the class action lawsuit alleges.

Perry says the letter doesn’t state the amount owed and doesn’t say that “unless the consumer, within thirty days after receipt of the notice, disputes the validity of the debt, or any portion thereof, the debt would be will be assumed to be valid by the debt collector.”

The debt collection letter also allegedly failed to say that Perry must notify Zucker “in writing within the 30-day period that the debt, or any portion thereof, is disputed, the debt collector will obtain verification of the debt or a copy of a judgment against the consumer and a copy of such verification of judgment will be mailed to the consumer by the debt collector.”

Perry is charging Zucker with two counts for violating the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act. She is asking for statutory and actual damages.

A similar class action lawsuit was filed against Zucker, Goldberg & Ackerman due to collections work it did on behalf of Deutsche Bank National Trust Co. That case was recently revived by the Superior Court of New Jersey’s Appellate Division in August.

The plaintiff is represented by Joseph K. Jones and Benjamin J. Wolf.

The DCPA Class Action Lawsuit is Elizabeth Perry v. Zucker Goldberg & Ackerman LLC et al., Case No. 2:13-cv-07701, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.