I’ve been posting about my dealings with Boyajian Law Offices, a debt collection agency with a hideous reputation. Thought I’d share the latest:
(1) I sent a demand letter to Boyajian, basically telling them to prove the debt or leave us the hell alone. I made sure I included copies of reports about them that I found on the Internet (here, here, and here). That seemed to stop calls to the house, at least.
(2) I note with glee that America’s most dogged Attorney General, Eliot Spitzer, just filed a lawsuit against Boyajian, alleging “illegal and abusive practices to coerce payment on time-barred or unverified debts”. Over 100 complaints have been filed with the NY AG’s office since 2003. According to Newsday, Boyajian’s and companies like them buy “the debt of [now defunct] companies for pennies on the dollar and are now trying to collect the money from consumers.”
(3) I have received in the mail confirmations from the Attorney General’s offices of NJ and KY, acknowledging my complaints. They can’t do much, but really, I just want the complaints filed so they can count as additional strikes against these scum bags.
(4) I had a lovely conversation with Investigator Alma Cueto of the State Bar of California’s Office of the Chief Trial Counsel Enforcement. Ms. Cueto called me right before the Independance Day holiday to interview me about my complaint against Boyajian. She had just heard about Spitzer’s case, and has received only a handful of complaints.
Please: if anyone out there is reading this blog and has a complaint against Boyajian Law Offices, JBC Legal Group, or JBC & Associates, go to the California Bar’s web site and file your complaint ASAP. This is your best chance to get Jack “the Rat” Boyajian disbarred in California.
(The reason you file your complaint in California, by the way, is because Boyajian is owned and operated by JBC Associates of Beverly Hills, CA).
(5) After I got off the phone with Ms. Cueto, I went to the mail box and discovered a letter from NCO Financial (who, according to the Cleburne News, does work with Boyajian)–a validation debt from MEDCLR, Inc., listed “as successor in interest to Cardinal Emergency Physicians”. The validation letter came from Rebecca L. Penski of NCO Financial Systems, 150 Crosspoint Parkway, Getzville, NY 14068; ph # 716.404.2100, fax 716.404.2120. It did include a statement of account from Cardinal Emergency Physicians as well as a copy of the Health Insurance Claim Form.
Of course, we all know what scum the NCO people are:
http://www.budhibbs.com/debtcollectorpages/nco_financial_systems.htm
However, they have provided a phone @ and address to Cardinal Emergency Physicians billing department, to wit:
Cardinal Emergency Physicians (tax ID # 75-2846747)
P O Box 8089
Philadelphia, PA 19101-8089
1.800.355-2470.
I spoke to that 800 # and the lady said the claim had been written off as “bad debt”. I explained about Boyajian Law Offices being a disreputable firm (and told her about the lawsuit from Eliot Spitzer)–I asked her to provide info on paying Cardinal Emergency Physicians DIRECTLY, that we will NOT pay ANY money to Boyajian or NCO. She’s mailing the information to me.
So apparently Cardinal Emergency Physicians does exist, just not in Kentucky. I’m continuing to verify–I have yet to find a web site for this group, but I’m still searching–but for those people who are being told by Boyajian that they owe money to Cardinal, I wanted to provide the contact information I uncovered, so you can get verification once and for all.
My next move is to check Older Bro’s credit report (via the government’s free credit report site) for the Date of Last Activity. From what I can tell, under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and the statute of limitations in KY, Cardinal Emergency Physicians had five years to collect on the debt–the five years being calculated from the Date of Last Activity. It’s now 2006, so the debt may be time-barred.
EDITED TO ADD: Hmmm. The results from Google are not encouraging.
This MEDCLR, Inc. group (a subsidiary of Marlin Integrated Capital) looks to be bad news as well. According to their own info, MEDCLR ”buys accounts then works to collect the money owed. Hospitals may sell accounts for a fraction of their value to minimize losses and improve cash flow. MEDCLR is a non-recourse collector, meaning it owns the accounts and does not return them to the hospital upon failure to collect. “
So if I understand the paper trail correctly, MEDCLR bought Older Bro’s outstanding debt from Cardinal Emergency Physicians, and turned it over to NCO Financial Systems…but this site and this site say that Marlin Integrated is owned by NCO Financial.
It’s all a little too incestous for me. If Cardinal exists, and the debt is not time-barred, we’ll make arrangements to pay them and notify MEDCLR/NCO/Marlin accordingly. We won’t pay MEDCLR/NCO/Marlin unless Cardinal can verify to us directly that they sold the debt to this entity.
