Mel S. Harris Case Dismissed

Our client contacted us in a panic after she discovered that her bank account was frozen with over $15,000 in it. After a quick investigation, we were able to establish that the collection law firm of Mel S. Harris had obtained a judgment against our client back in 2007. The judgment was for about $7,000 at the time which is why they were able to freeze about double the amount of money in her account.

After discussing the details with our client, we learned that she moved out of New York in 2006 moving to California. This explained both why she had no idea about the suit against her and why Mel S. Harris was not able to enforce the judgment against her. In most instances, a judgment obtained in New York must be domesticated in the state where the consumer has moved to in order to levy their bank account or garnish their wages. Often, this requires more work and funds to be spent by Midland Funding in attempting to locate the client. Sometimes the debt is so low that it isn't worth pursuing.

In this case, our client moved back to New York in 2014, and about 4 months later her account was levied. We filed an Order to Show Cause to have the judgment vacated immediately. Mel S. Harris contacted us agreeing to vacate the judgment as long as we agreed to a settlement. We stated that she was not interested in settling the matter and pointed out that we would also be pursuing an FDCPA case against them and Midland for suing our client in the wrong venue as well as obtaining a default judgment against her because of that reason. This is an automatic violation under the FDCPA which they knew quite well. Mel S. Harris decided to both voluntary vacate the judgment and dismiss the case against our client.