Bay Area Legal Aid is suing debt collector Achievable Solutions, Inc. (ASI) over claims of abuse and illegal debt collection practices that are alleged to “exploit and manipulate the normal operation of California’s overburdened courts” for a quick payday.
The complaint was filed on March 16 in Alameda County Superior Court. It claims that ASI, a company that purchases old debts from creditors, colluded with lawyers and process servers to file collections lawsuits and then intentionally fail to notify the debtor defendants that a lawsuit has been filed against them, which is mandated under California law.
"Junk debt buyers like Achievable Solutions have increased the workload of the state courts by filing thousands of lawsuits they have no intention of litigating," attorney Malachi J. Haswell told the Northern California Record. "Their only goal is to obtain default judgments with as little effort as possible. These sham, assembly-line lawsuits clog up the legal system and delay justice for everyone."
It is also alleged that ASI lied and told courts that the debtor defendants had been served with papers when that had not occurred, according to a report from courthousenews.com. Some experts believe this to be common practice and claim that most debts are unsubstantiated.