I was researching the law suits that were filed against the collection agency with whom I currently have a suit pending and I found 31 cases in PACER that span the last 10 years (more or less). Of those: 3 were new and still in the initial stages. 26 were settled before going to trial. 2 had a lot of paper flying back and forth (motivated plaintiffs) before settling. None of them were decided by a judge or jury (against this defendant, anyway). Of course we'll never know the content of the settlement agreements so it's pure speculation as to who settled, why they settled and for how much they settled, but I'd guess that in most cases the settlement was motivated by a payment of something from the defendant. I have seen others that do go to trial and (some pretty impressive damages and costs awarded) so it seems that if there's a few shreds of evidence and a plaintiff (and lawyer) who is willing to "go the distance," there's some money waiting on the other end. Not as good as a "slip and fall" suit, perhaps (I don't know), but something, at least. I did see others that were dismissed by the judge, and reading the complaints, they seemed pretty lame, so perhaps justice prevails more often than not? Anyway, I just thought this was interesting. Does that agree with other people's experiences when it comes to FDCPA suits?
http://mcleodlawoffices.com/2007/06/first_circuit_attorneys_fees.html#more might explain one reason...
The fact that a settlement can have a Non-Disclosure Agreement in it, while a Judgment is public record explains a lot of it. The absolute LAST thing they want on record is a road map on how to successfully beat them in Court.
