WI Consumer Claims Debt Collectors Illegally Submitted Personal Info to State Courts

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A Wisconsin consumer is behind a proposed class action in which he alleges Messerli & Kramer, P.A. and an individual debt collection attorney “knowingly and unnecessarily” publicly filed consumers’ confidential and statutorily protected information in various state courts. The plaintiff claims the defendants have violated privacy provisions within the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).

The plaintiff concedes he was behind on a debt from an unpaid balance on a Discover credit card, over which the defendants filed a collection complaint in state court in October 2017, the case says. According to the lawsuit, one document filed by the individual defendant in further court proceedings contained the plaintiff’s credit score information from the previous 12 months, an alleged impermissible and illegal use of the plaintiff’s private information.

The complaint charges the individual defendant and the unnamed John Doe defendants “were associates or junior attorneys at, or employed by, Defendant Messerli.” To that extent, the complaint argues Messerli & Kramer failed to keep a close enough eye on its employees, which could have prevented the alleged filing of the plaintiff’s confidential credit information.

“[The defendants] had, at all times material, a duty to adequately supervise the professional legal activities of themselves, associates or junior attorneys,” the complaint states. “[The defendants], through acts or omissions, breached their duty by negligently and/or recklessly failing to adequately supervise associates or junior attorneys by failing to take reasonable steps to protect the rights of consumers’ privacy described herein.”