Consumers Score in the Fight Against Collection Arbitration
Costa Mesa-based Morgan Drexen applaud consumer victory as Bank of America suspends debt Collection Arbitration in California.
Relief for many American consumers battling with debt collection as debt arbitrations in California face a 2-year suspension.
A San Francisco court on Monday resolved a 4-year old lawsuit against Bank of America’s FIA Card Services. The allegations were against The National Arbitration Forum Inc, based in Minneapolis, with claims that they were extremely biased in favor of the bank and not the consumer.
Bank of America Corp’s credit card unit were forced to pay $5 million and suspended from arbitrations of consumer debt collections in California for two years.
As an act of good faith BOA agree not to use the mediation service for five years. Bank of America spokesperson Shirley Norton says, ”Both sides agreed to the settlement to avoid the costs and uncertainty of further legal action.”
California-based Morgan Drexen CEO Walter Ledda says, “Arbitration is a valuable process to achieve an expeditious resolution of a dispute. However, when the process loses its integrity, the whole system gets hurt.”
Morgan Drexen provides Integrates Legal Systems (MDIS) to attorneys across the nation. Using automated systems the attorneys have complete automation and efficiency that allows for both the saving of time and money.
Vincent Howard of Costa Mesa-based Howard Law says, “This is a good result and it affirms what I have always believed based on my representation of clients who have been subject to these biased forums, and that is that the banks and the arbitration companies they use are in cahoots and have been for years. If you take a look at the statistics, the banks win 95% of the time. The banks have even won in these forums against people who didn't even have a debt with the credit card company in question.”
Howard uses the automation provided by Morgan Drexen it provides an accurate and fair system of helping consumers with high levels and debt and automated to some extent the settlement process.
The case is People of State of California v. National Arbitration Forum, 473569, California Superior Court, County of San Francisco.