Zwanger & Pesiri Radiology Group, VanVorst Law Firm Sued Over Allegedly Deceptive Letter

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A proposed class action out of New York federal court alleges that Zwanger & Pesiri Radiology Group LLP falsely represented that it had retained an independent law firm to collect a consumer’s debt.

The suit focuses on a letter sent to the plaintiff by co-defendant VanVorst Law Firm, PLLC in December 2018. According to the case, the letter stated that the woman’s account with Zwanger & Pesiri was referred to the firm for collection. The complaint alleges that this was not the case, however, as VanVorst “operates under the exclusive control” of the radiology services provider. In fact, the firm’s only worker is directly employed by Zwanger as the company’s director of human resources, the suit claims. From the complaint:

“…VANVORST's only involvement with collecting debts for ZWANGER was to create a template law firm collection letter…and to allow ZWANGER to mass-produce and send letters based on the template which falsely represents ZWANGER has retained an independent third-party law firm to collect debts on its behalf.”

The case argues that the defendants intended to invoke a false sense of urgency by misrepresenting that the sender of the collection notice was a third-party law firm that would file suit against the plaintiff if the debt in question remained unpaid.