February
2019
20
Gothamist — While not particularly good at executing major capital projects or managing a budget or even running trains much of the time, the MTA is apparently very adept at squeezing money out of low-income riders.
November
2018
9
Crain’s New York Business — Debt collectors in New York hit upon a big idea last decade: They would buy defaulted credit-card or health-care bills, sue debtors without notifying them and then falsely state they had been properly served. Defendants, often poor minorities, didn’t show up in court. Default judgments were routinely entered, leaving collectors free to garnish debtors’ wages.
August
2018
6
This spring, New Economy Project attended Encore Capital’s annual shareholder meeting at the Hyatt Hotel in midtown Manhattan. Three members of our legal team, Eve Weissman, Susan Shin, and Nick Loh, went to the shareholder meeting to call out ways that Encore, among the country’s largest debt buying companies, harms New Yorkers.
July
2018
23
Crain’s New York Business — Esther Roman, a 60-year-old grandmother in Brooklyn, was alarmed when she noticed in January that her $300 weekly paycheck was $27.99 short. She called her employer, a home health care agency, which said her wages were being garnished after someone sued her, claiming she’d failed to pay an old credit-card bill.
July
2018
7
Our Staff Attorney Eve Weissman appears on the Season the Bitch podcast to break down some of the systemic forces contributing to our culture of debt and enumerate your options and rights when dealing with debt collectors. Listen below or here.
February
2018
22
Colorlines — A new report says that thousands of people across 26 states are arrested and jailed each year due to outstanding debts such as unpaid medical bills and car loans. The practice violates due process rights and was abolished by the federal government in 1883.
In November 2015, New Economy Project filed a federal lawsuit, with co-counsel, against the debt collection law firm Gutman, Mintz, Baker, and Sonnenfeldt (GMBS), on behalf of Franklin Arias, a New Yorker in his 70s whose only income is Social Security benefits. The lawsuit alleged that GMBS violated federal debt collection and state consumer protection […]
In December 2017, New Economy Project and co-counsel filed a state class action lawsuit against the debt collection law firm Houslanger & Associates and its debt buyer clients Virgo Capital and Aquarius Capital, as well as debt buyers Gotham Collection Services and HK Recovery Group, on behalf of Gladys Bostic, Cimeron DuBose, Gerald Dycha, and […]
In November 2017, with co-counsel, New Economy Project filed a federal class action lawsuit against the debt collection law firm Houslanger & Associates, as well as its debt buyer clients Virgo Capital and Aquarius Capital, on behalf of Ramel Sanders and Antero Sarreal, both low-income New Yorkers. The lawsuit alleges that Houslanger and its debt […]
November
2017
14
New York Law Jounrnal — Attorneys for the plaintiffs in a debt collection suit lauded a decision Monday by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, calling it a major victory for low-income people facing aggressive and potentially illegal collection practices.