Issues We're Working on or Looking into Summer 2015

It's been awhile since I updated the master list.  This is adapted from our client sheet so the formatting may be kind of crazy.

If you are an Indiana resident OR if you were affected by misconduct originating in Indiana, please contact us at hoferlawindy@gmail.comThe Indiana Supreme Court probably considers this to be an ATTORNEY ADVERTISEMENT

1.       If you had a car repossessed, and the lender is trying to collect money from you WHETHER OR NOT THE A CASE HAS BEEN FILED IN COURT.

2.       If you have sold rights to part of your pension in exchange for cash (Pension Factoring) or if you purchased an income stream from someone else’s pension. Many of these contracts are illegal and you might get some money back.

3.       If you have been sued or face suit for foreclosure.

4.       If you bought a car, but after the paperwork was done and you took the car home, the dealer said you had to come back in and redo the paperwork.  (This is called a Yo-Yo sale.)

5.       If you have received letters from a county prosecutor’s office demanding payment for a bad check.

6.       If you are being harassed by a debt collector including name-calling, racial slurs, frequent hangups, early morning or late-night calls, threatening to take actions they can’t take.

7.       If you are receiving any kind of collection or harassing calls on your cellphone even if you owe the debt.

8.       If you are receiving collection letters or calls on either debt not owed or debt that is more than 6 years old.  (Six years since last payment).

9.       We do debt defense and offensive cases against debt buyers.  These are the largest in Indiana/ Midland Funding, Arrow Financial Services, Asset Acceptance, LVNV Funding, LLC, American Acceptance, Atlantic Credit and Finance, Credit Max CACH LLC, RAB Performance Recovery NCO Financial, Unifund, Patriot Recovery LLC Portfolio Recovery.

10.    We are starting to do some STUDENT LOAN DEFENSE.  The most common lawsuits are by National Collegiate Student Loan Trust(s) and Educap.

11.   Get your free credit reports at www.annualcreditreport.com. Contact us if you have inaccurate data or if your information was confused with someone else’s or If there is identity theft.

12.   If you are contacted regarding an out-of-state speeding or parking ticket that you don’t owe or any fine from many years ago.

13.   If you bought a new (or almost new) car or light truck and within 18 months or 18,000 miles of the ORIGINAL purchase, the vehicle had a problem that was subject to 4 repair attempts OR was out of the shop totally for 30 days or more during the first 18 months/18,000 miles of service. (This is the LEMON LAW. Note the lemon law does not apply to older vehicles. Other laws do apply to used cars, but the analysis is more complex, and the remedies are more iffy.) 

14.   If you bought a car that you later found out was a rebuilt wreck, but that wasn’t disclosed to you.

15.   If you are receiving collection calls at work and you told the collector that you can’t be called there.

16.   If you received telemarketing calls even though you are on a do not call list or any telemarketing calls on your cellphone. 

17.   If you are being dunned for add-on servicing charges by your mortgage company that you don’t understand or are unwarranted.

18.   If you have received calls or letters from a collection agency about a student loan.

19.   If you have received a periodic “mystery charge” on a credit card statement, usually about $9.99/month.  More than 100 names have been associated with this cam, usually the name associated with the charges includes reference to Buyers, Identity, Advantage, Charter, Chase, Benefits Bonus, Advantage, Rewards, Enhanced, Fraud (ironically), “Great Fun”, ID or Identity, Savings, smart, Travelers, Ultimate or Value. 

20.   If you received a death benefit from an insurance company and they required that you take the money by charge card or new checking account.

21.   If your employer requires you to be paid via funds loaded on a debit card.

22.   If you received debt collection communications on a deceased spouse’s account.

23.   If you were sued for medical bills that were incurred by your spouse. 

24.   If you are having problems with a timeshare or camping club.

25.   If you received collection letters and the collector imposed charges for accepting credit card/telephone or check payments.

26.   If you are having any kind of a dispute with an insurance company regarding payment of a claim.

27.   If you did work for which you were not paid or for which you were not paid at least minimum wage. Note: this covers mandatory time before clock-in or if you are required to clock out but remain on hand for a split shift.   Most workers should also get time and a half for over 40 hours/week. Often employees are classified as “exempt” managers improperly, especially “assistant managers” who do the same work as line employees.

28.   If you were fired for union-organization activity.

29.   If you know about a company ripping off the government, and you want to claim whistleblower protection.

30.   If you received unsolicited fax advertising either at home or at your small business? These cases could be worth $500 to $1,500 per fax.

31.   If you received unsolicited text message (SMS) advertising? These cases could be worth $500 to $1500 per message.

32.   If you have received autodialed calls or calls involving a recorded voice on a cell phone. (4 year limitations period).

33.   If you were unable to protect yourself from a creditor due to MILITARY SERVICE, or if you are a service member or family member who needs protection from a creditor.

34.   If you are getting dunned for payday loans, especially loans you don’t remember taking out OR ANY PAYDAY LOAN FROM AN OUT-OF-STATE OR INTERNET LENDER OR LENDER ON AN INDIAN RESERVATION.

35.    If you are the survivor of a person who had a reverse mortgage, and they are requiring you to pay off the mortgage in full.

36.   Predatory Mortgage lending – We aren’t seeing as much of this as we used to, because most of the lenders were driven out of bankruptcy in the Great Recession, it is usually easiest to deal with these cases defensively when dealing with mortgage foreclosures.

37.   If a home improvement contractor refuses to finish a job or redo shoddy work.

38.   If there is an abandoned big box store in your neighborhood that is an eyesore or worse.

39.   Personal Injuries: Our office will rarely take personal injury cases independently; however we can find and co-counsel with specialized firms who have experience with different kinds of injuries including, auto and motorcycle accidents, workplace chemical exposure, medical negligence, hospital infections, defective-product caused injuries. 

40.   Other Matters: As we add personnel, we expect to gradually add some additional areas of practice, but in the meantime we can refer to other offices for areas including Bankruptcy, Guardianships, Adoptions, Social Security Disability, Probate, Criminal, Zoning and Condemnation, Family law, Immigration.

By the way, we know that a lot of our folks are “snowbirds” and spend part of the year in other parts of the country. If you have an incident or problem that occurs somewhere other than Indiana, just send us an email at hoferlawindy@gmail.com, let us know about the type of problem and where it occurred, and as a courtesy, we’ll try to find you a NACA-member attorney as close as possible to the place of the incident.