Recently, Lebedin Kofman LLP was retained as counsel to defend a private student loan lawsuit. The creditor and plaintiff was Cavalry Portfolio Services, LLC, a debt buyer who was represented by the law firm of Schachter Portnoy, LLC in Kings County Civil Court. The suit in this case involved our client’s alleged default on a student loan. Our firm began working on this case shortly after he received the summons and complaint so that an answer with affirmative defenses could be submitted and a default judgment avoided.
Calvary was founded in 2002 and is in the business of the acquisition and management of non-performing consumer loan portfolios or debt. Schachter Portnoy, LLC is a common debt collection law firm with over forty years of collecting and enforcing debt for businesses, collection agencies, healthcare providers, professionals, individuals, and governmental agencies in the collection of delinquent debts and creditors’ rights matters. From our experience in defending against them we have seen that they are generally aggressive in seeking recovery of claims and judgments.
After filing an answer to the summons and complaint served on our client, we were able to pressure Shachter Portnoy into a negotiated out of court settlement for our client. The settlement reached in this case reduced the amount owed by about 75% off of the full amount and we were even able to have that amount split up into installments over a 15-month period. This settlement saved our client over $15,000 off the principle amount of the debt owed.