Forster and Garbus is probably the largest and most well known debt collection law firm in New York based on our experience defending thousands of cases against them. They represent a wide variety of original creditors and debt-buyers including Discover, Midland Funding, LVNV Funding, Navient, SLM Finance, National Collegiate Student Loan Trust, Jefferson Capital Systems as well as many others. Forster & Garbus has a large pre-litigation collection department which is usually the first phase of how collection for the above creditors begins. Collection can last for months in which agents reach out to the debtor for payment, sometimes contacting the consumer multiple times daily. Unsuccessful collection usually leads to litigation as they do not want the statute of limitations to pass so that they will not be able to sue a consumer in the future.
Consumer collection lawsuits frequently become default judgments in our experience where the consumer loses the lawsuit automatically because they did not answer the complaint. Of course, the reason most default judgments are obtained is because the consumer was not served with the lawsuit to begin with. New York is an extremely large city which means that serving people properly requires effort. People move around frequently and there are many people with similar if not identical names. We often find that consumers are served at an old address that they have not lived in for some time which is why they do not receive notice of the lawsuit. Sometimes service is so bad that the summons is delivered to a wrong address or wrong person altogether. Many of these judgments are obtained by Forster & Garbus on behalf of their clients.
It is important to move to vacate a default judgment as quickly as possible as there is a one year time period to do so from the time a consumer learns of the judgment. An Order to Show Cause to vacate the judgment is the name of the motion to be filed and to be successful it must include a reasonable excuse and a meritorious defense to vacate the default. Vacating a judgment re-opens the entire matter and the lawsuit re-starts. Sometimes, collection firms like Forster and Garbus will voluntarily vacate the judgment if shown proof of improper service. Forster and Garbus have almost always been interested in conducting settlement negotiations to resolve these matters for all the creditors they represent but is important to provide the necessary leverage to do so in the form of defenses to the lawsuit or vacating the judgment if there is a default. Offers to settle can range from 40%-70% off of the balance depending on many different factors but also based on who the creditor is. For example, an original creditor such as Discover is more difficult to reduce the balance on than a debt-buyer like Midland Funding. This is primarily due to the fact that it is more difficult for debt-buyers like Midland and LVNV Funding to prove their case as opposed to original creditors given that they have to show that they properly acquired the debt.
Forster And Garbus Debt Collection And Settlement
