Even though Portfolio Recovery is registered with the FL Dept of Finance as a consumer collection agency, they are not a FL corporate citizen. Meaning they IMHO committed perjury when they filled out their application for a collection agency. Since they are not registered as a corporate entity according to the FL Dept. of State website, they do not have the capacity to sue in FL. That is a FDCPA violation. It is also an Affirmative Defense and COA for a counter-suit.
Except for the perjury, that takes about a day to cure at a cost of $70 in filing fees (plus the cost of a good standing from their home state). Of course, they may owe more if they have been operating here illegally, as well as back taxes to the Dept of Revenue (if they perjure themselves again on the qualification docs, this may not be known for a while). But there's a laundry list of what does not constitute "doing business" in Florida in the Statutes. The question would be whether anything they do falls outside any of the exceptions--it's possible registration alone would be enough to compel qualification, or vice-versa. http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&Search_String=&URL=Ch0607/SEC1501.HTM&Title=->2007->Ch0607->Section%201501#0607.1501 Could Banking and Finance be so slack as to not cross-check registrants with sunbiz.org if qualification to do business here is required by the registration statute?
