I just went through the ringer with Wolpoff and Abramson. I was fortunate in that I had a bit of a windfall so I could take Bill Bauer's advice and pay them off. Before I did that, however, I bought a book from the TLPA regarding the abuse of the arbitration clause. There are a lot of helpful cases and precedents for fighting that kind of abuse. I, unfortunately, don't have the money to fight it so I am paying and running away. The first letter they send is a demand to pay what the creditor tells them to collect. I sent my validation letter, they ignored it and sent the matter to arbitration. At that point, I began to research and found out that that is typical. They will get a decision from the NAF in their favor and then take it to court to have it rendered into a judgment. I stopped the process by calling them and reaching a settlement which was higher than the balance that the creditor claimed but less than the ridiculous attorney's fees they were claiming. Someone needs to fight this and the TLPA (Trial Lawyers Professional Association) is a good resource for info and case law. They have a whole project dedicated to fighting arbitration clause abuse. Anyway, just wanted to share my experience and let you know that I did have very favorable outcomes with other creditors so I don't feel so bad about losing on this one. It seems the Constitution is under threat from a lot of different quarters.
Oh sorry about that. I meant to put that in. The book is "Consumer Arbitration Agreements" by the National Consumer Law Center with the TLPJ. (I mistakenly called it TLPA. They have a website. www.tlpj.org then just click on the publications button. Hope this helps someone.
The OC was MBNA. The info here convinced me that I was in over my head with Wolpoff and Abramson and MBNA against me.
NAF is where they have gone in every case that I have run across so far. I tend to think that one needs to compile some good violations on them and then beat them to NAF with an arb hearing against them with FDCPA violations and then see if NAF will issue an award against them. If they won't then one should have a good enough reason to be able to file on both NAF and W&A and one might even be able to file a civil RICO on them. Naturally, since I'm not a lawyer that is only my personal thoughts on the matter. But it sure seems to me that one ought to have a cause of action if NAF refused to award on FDCPA violations. I know that some have tried it and have won awards but I don't know if they used NAF or not and I don't know if any have tried for an award against W&A. But one thing is for certain in my mind and that is that the only way would be to fight fire with fire.
I sure do want to help in any way I can to get the Constitution back into this whole credit process. With this arbitration clause stuff and the push in congress to change the bankruptcy laws, we are moving more and more toward the loan sharks controling our lives even more than they already do.
One of the documents that are included in the book is a list of demands for documents relating to the arbitration. There seems to be some success with fighting the NAF using a clause in the FAA (Federal Arbitration Act) that disqualifies an arbitrator for bias. There is a lot of evidence presented in the book that NAF has used sales brochures to the Credit Companies to say that they can reduce their litigation costs. That coupled with some statistics from a case against First USA that said that 99% of the cases arbitrated by NAF brought by First USA were awarded to the First USA. So bias was proven. But this, I believe, was in a case in court asking for the award to be vacated. I have not read anything that states that the NAF has ruled the FDCPA has been violated. There is also an article in the book that talks about a Delaware law pushed through by MBNA and others that upholds the legality of retroactively adding arbitration clauses through envelope stuffers. The NAF awards and the Delaware court renders a judgment. Very convenient.
Bill, The name of the book is: "Consumer Arbitration Agreements" Enorcability and Other Topics. I posted that yesterday right after you asked me. The website is www.tlpj.org.
