I have been dealing with this company for over six months. They are some shell debt collection company trying to collect a debt under the guise of some dead lawyers name, Howard Lee Schiff, PC.
I have tried to resolve this matter in an affable manner, however I have been greeted by rude customer service agents that are curt and obviously working on commission.
They have since taken me to small claims court with an Attorney as Mary H. Thomas, Esquire listed in Portland, ME. However any attempt to correspond speak with her directly is a big waste of time. I have also contacted their main office in Connecticut on three separate occasions without response. Instead I receive an inordinate amount of automated phone calls from this company. I would like for them to stop harrassing me immediately and I will see them in small claims court
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I have HAD IT with these people! I was unfairly and deceptively scared into signing a judgment with these ###, I was not informed that I had the right to dispute the debt (which I believe they are required to do by law) was told that I did not want to waste the courts time and could go to jail which is illegal and I did not know this. I met them in the hallway BEFORE the courtroom, they acted like my best friend and I was basically scared into signing it and I personally NEVER stepped foot in a court room. I wish I knew then what I know now.
I have filed complaints with the Massachusetts Division of Banks, The Massachusetts Attorney General, I have written to the Governor of Massachusetts also my State Rep and the FTC. These people need to be stopped doing what they are doing, basically skating the line of the law because while they are attorneys, in reality they are debt collectors but are not subject to licensing as so because of their attorney status . I am currently looking into filing a class action lawsuit against them for deceptive practices but need more people that have been deceived like I have been. please email me at johnworc70@yahoo.com
i would like to add my name to any complaint anyone has...mjd_mass@yahoo.com lets talk
I agree completely. They are no good ### who make up debts just to make money and scare some innocent people into payment arrangements before it ever gets to court. I say that we get a class action suit started.
I have been harassed by this supposed law firm for months. Finally a deputy sheriff served me with small claims papers. It turns out that the harassment relates to a Citibank credit card that I haven't used in at least 14 years! The statute of limitations for debt collections here in Maine is 6 years. This is not even a collectible debt, yet here they are, harassing and harassing and even suing. I am pretty amazed. The papers they served have an affidavit attached from some company called Midland Financial. Apparently that entity bought the supposed debt from Citibank. In any event, there is nothing on the papers that prove that I owe a single cent, just bare unsubstantiated allegations. I will certainly appear in court and contest this foolishness, but the harassment is outrageous and should be stopped. Surely there is a rule in Maine that sanctions lawyers for seeking to collect either money not owed or for filing suit on a claim that is statutorily barred. I will look into this further. I'd love to see a post out there from someone who has experience in these matters legally.
we had 2 Cap One cc accounts. Schiff sent us offer letter with a lump sum. Ended up going to court. Agreed to pay $150/month on a $7K debt with a 6 month review. This was on the larger of the 2 accounts. Schiff sent us another offer letter with a lump sum for the smaller of the two accounts. We ignored it. About 3 months later...out of the blue...we receive an order of dismissal from the court. Apparantly Schiff attempted to slide a judgement through without serving us. This was the reason for the dismissal. Dismissal clearly states that we owe NOTHING! Then 2 months later, again out of the blue...we receive a judgement for that dismissed case saying that we owe the money. We NEVER received notification of this case going to court...never had the opportunity to fight this. NOW we are stuck with these judgments. What can we do?
I just recently went to court with Howard Lee Schiff on 2 capital one accounts. They served my son in Maine with these an I have been a resident in NH. Their debt collectors called my son's home and told him he was interfering with the Law. He explained I didn't live there and they were still saying he was interfering with the Law. He let me know and I showed up to court. I advised of my residency.
Pine Tree Legal was there and took this over for me. Both were dismissed with prejudice.
I am now seeking an attorney for a lawsuit.
Lets all file a class action law suit against those "SCHIFFTY ###." The case will absolutely be won. These F'ing ### have broken so many laws, it's ridiculous. I have a fantastic case but I would like to sue as a class action suit to get more mosey from the ### and put them out of business.
KAREN, A LAYWER (OR D-BAG) FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE, WHO WORKS FOR SCHIFF, IS A REAL C**T. I'll include her in the class action suit as well as many other of you folks out there. Please lets get a class action law suit started.
Has anyone found and attorney who would do a class action? I know I am looking for an attorney to sue them.
I haven't had a chance to look. This whole thing just came back to life, for me, when I was emailed about the subject. I had posted here quite some time ago and was notified by email upon the latest entry to this page. I've got a back injury and haven't been able to do much recently. I would need the cooperation of others in order to file a class action law suit. I would be so, so thrilled to sue these jerks. I have never seen a case such as mine be so illegally prosecuted in my life. My case, in my opinion, included a crooked judge. I truly believe that in my case, the judge was getting paid off to find me guilty even though I was not. The case dragged on for years without ever having proof of discovery. None was ever shown, even after my repeated attempts at getting any supposed evidence that proved "SCHIFFTY'S case. I was set to go for a jury trial when I was hauled back into court a week before my trial and found guilty without ever being granted my constitutional right to jury trial. So tell me, how could that happened without there being a crooked judge involved. These dirty ### are paying off people to get guilty verdicts, in my opinion. They do this even years after a case is past the statute of limitations. They do that by continuously reselling debts, which keeps it alive for many years past the allotted time in which to prosecute any case. That is one of may illegal methods these ### employ when trying their cases. Lets keep the dialogue going on this. Posting here is a great way to keep up the search rankings for the ### at Howard Lee Schiff so others can easily find this page. Did you know that Howard Lee Schiff is dead. How do these people keep using a dead person's name to run their company of ###. Are they really licensed? Maybe not, if their running their company under the guise of being H L S. when he's been six feet under for years. My hope is that if we bad together with a class action law suit, that the whole company will be six feet under. We could also have laws changed to prevent the other blood sucking agencies like HLS from doing the same thing to innocent people. We can change laws to stop these atrocities from happening if we band together. We can prevent these illegal actions from happening in the future while getting paid for what they've done to us.
Potz
I know this post is old, but I wanted to add that I am now being harassed by these idiots. All of a sudden today, totally out of the blue, I was served with papers from Howard Lee Schiff, who is claiming that they placed a judgment on me back in 2011 and they are now claiming that I owe them $545 and want me to go to court in a month. First of all, I have NO idea who these people even are. I have never once heard of them until today. This is the first time I've ever been served with anything in my entire life. Secondly, I monitor my credit reports very carefully and receive email alerts whenever there is a change on any of my credit reports, and I have absolutely no knowledge of any judgments whatsoever being placed against me, so this is definitely news to me! You would think that if a judgment had been there for 3 years, I would have known about it! In that time frame, I have refinanced my house and successfully gotten 2 car loans, all of which pulled my credit report, and there was absolutely no mention of any judgments, so this makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what in the world this could be about. The attorney's name on the paper I was served with is Mary Thomas, Esq. out of Portland, Maine. Since I just received these papers on a Friday evening at 6 p.m., I'm going to have to wait until Monday to call them to find out what this is all about. If they give me any trouble whatsoever, I will go directly to the consumer credit protection bureau for my state. I literally have no idea why these people are bothering me. It doesn't even say what the original debt is from! The papers I received are extremely vague and don't have any information regarding this so-called debt at all. Even the guy who served me the papers said it's probably some ### collection agency that purchased an old debt and are now trying to collect on it. All thus fuss over $545? REALLY? This should be interesting!
These people are the BIGGEST CROOKS EVER! Mary Thomas out of their Portland, ME office came after me about a year ago for a really old Capital One card that I had back around 2007/2008 claiming that I owed just over $500. I PAID THEM OFF IN FULL. Now, suddenly today, I got a certified letter from them stating that they have placed a lien against my property and claim that I owe them over $1000! What the *&%$?!?!?!?!?!? . I am about to place a call to the Maine Consumer Credit Protection Bureau. I have been doing some research on Mary Thomas from Howard Lee Schiff and it appears that she has been investigated more than once for unethical collection practices. I will NOT let them do this to me!
If you have a good legal fight against them. Call Sergei Lemberg at Lemberg Law In Connecticut his Law Firm is great with these types of things. Also if it's through Capital One I would bombard the CEO of Capital One with letter of Complaint. His name is Mr. Richard D. Fairbank
President & CEO
Capital One Financial Corp
1680 Capital One Drive
McLean, VA 22102
I wrote a very nasty letter to him and did get a call from a Lisa from his office. I am positive Capital One doesn't want such bad reviews the more letters the more angry they may get and fire Howard Lee Schiff from doing their collections. Good Luck.
They are harrassing me now and I'm on SSDI I don't know what to do. I was working for a short time and I do owe a small debt on a credit card. I didn't realize what I was getting into and now back on full disability I can't afford the payments they want. I'm afraid if what will happen. I can't even afford to eat half the time never mind paying the $35 a week they want. My vehicle is in driveway broken can't afford to fix it and I'm reclusive so I have no from or way to go to court anyhow. Anyone know what I should do?!