Lawsuit: Systematic National Collections Sent Letters Containing ‘Full-Blown Misrepresentations’ [UPDATE: AMICABLY RESOLVED]

New to ClassAction.org? Read our Newswire Disclaimer

Systematic National Collections, Inc. finds itself staring down a proposed class action that claims the company attempted to collect on a California consumer’s time-barred debt by sending a series of deceptive and threatening letters.

According to the case, the defendant sent the plaintiff at least 14 collection notices from September 2017 to July 2018 concerning a debt incurred roughly 12 years prior. While the first letters merely stated that the obligation may have been reported to credit bureaus, in November 2017, the lawsuit continues, the debt collector allegedly “progressed its ambiguous threats to full-blown misrepresentations that it had in fact ‘chosen to exercise [its] right to report this account to the three major nationwide credit bureaus, TransUnion, Equifax, and Experian because of [Platiniff’s] [sic] refusal to pay.’” Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, however, collection agencies are prohibited from reporting debts more than seven years old, the complaint explains. Further, despite the defendant’s threats to report the man’s years-old debt to the major credit bureaus, the plaintiff claims that a credit report he ran in February 2018 showed Systematic National Collections had done no such thing.

The consumer then claims that in December 2017 he began receiving letters in which the defendant threatened that it had “no choice” but to take legal action in an attempt, the suit says, to “intimidate” the plaintiff into paying the old debt.

“Defendant went so far as to threaten Plaintiff with wage garnishment and inappropriately stating to Plaintiff that, ‘we cannot believe you wish these events to occur,’” the complaint reads.

The suit charges that the four-year statute of limitations on the debt was “well beyond” expired and says the defendant continued threatening to take actions it was not legally able to take through July 2018.