Credit Acceptance, Autovest, Ford Motor, Toyota Financial Reposession Debt Cases on the Rise

Recently we have seen the number of auto repossession debt cases rise significantly. Auto-repo cases stem from consumers falling behind on their payments on a leased or financed car. When the car is repossessed or voluntarily surrendered by the consumer the creditor will then sell the car at auction. In the meantime, the debt accrues all sorts of fees and penalties to add to the total balance. The car will then generally sell for a fraction of what it is worth at auction and the creditor will pursue the consumer for the balance. Very often, the balance may even be higher than the original balance owed. At that point, the debt is initially sent into collection and then finally litigation is pursued if the collection agency is not able to obtain any funds from the consumer. Very often consumers are fooled into believing that voluntarily giving in their car is preferable to a repossession and won’t affect them as negatively but in reality it is the exact same.

The creditors that we have seen most often have been a mix of original creditors and debt buyers including: Credit Acceptance Corporation, Autovest LLC, Ford Motor Credit, Toyota Motor Financial and DFS Financial. We have also consistently seen the same firms retained to enforce the debt for these creditors including: Relin Goldstein & Crane, Rubin & Rothman, Deily & Glastetter, and Stephen Einstein & Associates. The goal of these firms and the creditors is to sue the consumer in order to obtain a default judgment. Once a default judgment is obtained, then they are able to enforce the judgment by way of bank levy and wage garnishment among other avenues of judgment enforcement. Judgment interest also accrues at 9% allowing the inflated debt to increase even more. In these cases, it is important to submit any answer if actually served to prevent a default judgment or to file an order to show cause to vacate judgment if a default judgment is entered due to improper service.