More than 3,000 Debt Collection Suits Dismissed Per Class Action Settlement

Making good on one of the consequences of a recent class action settlement against an ARM firm, the district court in Maryland Thursday dismissed some 3,100 debt collection lawsuits filed in state courts.

The cases that were dismissed cannot be refiled and any liens stemming from settled cases will be released. Any judgments must also be reported as “satisfied.”

The case, Winemiller et al. v. Worldwide Asset Purchasing et al. was filed in 2009 and a settlement was reached in March of this year. Judge Richard D. Bennett issued a final order on the agreement in U.S. District Court on August 24. The defendants are a group of collection agencies and debt buyers including Worldwide Asset Purchasing LLC, Worldwide Asset Purchasing II, West Receivable Services Inc. and West Corp.

The case alleged that the companies were not properly licensed to collect in Maryland and that they “consistently misstated the total amount of the principal, wrongly including interest and fees in the principal calculation,” in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Further, the case alleged that some of the debts pursued in court were beyond the statute of limitations.

Worldwide also had to pay $575,000 in the settlement, the largest chunk of which went to the plaintiffs’ attorneys in the case.