Midland funding is one of the nation’s largest buyers of defaulted debts. Midland credit management also works as a debt collector collecting credit card debts. This is why people ask who is midland funding LLC.
In Kentucky, you only have 20 days to file an answer to a complaint. Other states often allow you 30 days. Midland Funding will request a default judgment if you fail to file a response. Their collection efforts are relevant to credit bureaus, costing you higher loan rates and insurance.
So what can you do? You can litigate against Midland credit management. You can negotiate with Midland credit management, or you can file bankruptcy. All the reasonable options and steps are as under. Don’t assume you can not do one strategy or another. Take a minute to make a battle plan against the debt collection company.
Who is the CEO of Midland Funding LLC?
Ashish Masih is Encore Capital Group’s President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Masih joined the company in 2009 and was appointed President and CEO of Encore in June 2017. Previously he served as President of Midland Credit Management (MCM), Encore’s most prominent business unit.
Encore Capital Group owns Midland funding LLC, which is the most prominent business that Encore capital group owns. Ashish Masih is the president and CEO of Encore, and he was a past president and CEO of Midland funding LLC until 2017. Ryan Bell is now the president of Midland funding LLC.
Midland’s main job is collecting charged-off debts from credit card companies. This is their website https://www.midlandcredit.com/. But please read the entire article before you consider contacting them. All communications with them are recorded and can or will be used in court against you. Primarily they collect by bank and wage garnishment or attaching homes after getting a judgment.
Do Not Ignore a Lawsuit
As long as a debt collector sends letters or attempts to call, they have little or no power to collect the debt. They have to sue to force collections. Without filing a lawsuit, they can only ask you to pay.
Midland Funding LLC will file lawsuits hoping people will not file an answer and sue them back. If you have been sued, answer the complaint within 20 days. Most law firms will give you a free consultation on defending against collection agencies.
If you ignore the lawsuit, Midland will win by default even if you had defenses against the original creditor. Most consumers, however, have not spent years defending against lawsuits, so it is best to use a law firm to represent you. If you don’t, you will miss defenses that could have been asserted, or even worse; you will admit you owe the debt collectors, which allows them to win quickly by a motion for summary judgment.
You almost always have legal defenses and options. You do not want the debt collector to get a judgment against you.
Winning a Settlement with Midland Credit Management
To avoid a judgment against you, we can negotiate a settlement with Midland funding below the amount they claim. If the debt is small, it may not be worth the expense and time of litigation or bankruptcy. On average, consumers win a debt collection lawsuit half the time.
At the start of any case, you should send a debt validation letter. But if you have been served, do not spend more than a month negotiating the debt. While you are negotiating, they will continue to litigate their state court lawsuit and ask for a judgment. This is called dual tracking.
If you are not careful, a judgment will be issued. Midland will often settle for 70-80% of the alleged unpaid debt. They will usually delete the record from a credit report if you settle. They will be happy to set up a payment plan, but the minimum monthly payment plan will usually be required to pay off the 70-80% within a year or two.
Midland credit management wants consumer payment plans to fail. The default provisions often allow them to recover the entire balance of the debt plus attorney fees as a judgment. They will garnish a bank account and wages and attach homes. Negotiated settlements only work if the amounts are small and if the payments are made without fail.
Winning Litigation Against Midland Credit Management
At the start of the case or first contact with a debt collector, you should ask for a validation of the debt. Verification or Validation letters have little effect. Midland essentially sends a copy of the bill. However, it would help if you still did this.
Never admit you owe the debt. Your conversations are recorded; if you make a statement, it will often be used later. Any admission you owe the debt or any payment you make restarts the statute of limitations. Responding to a collection letter, talking to debt collectors, and filing your answer is often fatal. The problem with litigation is that it is expensive and takes time. If it is not done correctly, it may be better if it is not done at all.
Litigation works best for large debts, and you can run up attorney fees if you don’t win. The credit card company always has a clause allowing them to collect their costs in their contract in addition to the debt. You may want to settle the debt or file bankruptcy if fighting is too much.
Answering a Midland Funding LLC Lawsuit Your Defenses
Most debt collectors ensure the statute of limitations has not run on the debt. Any law firm will usually ask for proper documentation, including the original contract, to ensure an old obligation has not run the statute of limitations.
We help you to prepare a proper answer. A lawyer can prepare a helpful reply to the lawsuit against you that complies with the applicable rules and protects you from a default judgment.
Never forget that you can also sue Midland funding LLC as a debt collector. When Midland funding uses abusive debt collection tactics, the agency can be sued for violations of the FDCPA. You can also include state violations for unfair practices if they threatened criminal prosecution, harassed, lied to, or committed over 60 different actions under the Fair Debt Practices Act. Instead of them suing you, the tables can turn, and you can be suing them and recover damages plus your attorney fees.
Answer Strategies and Defenses Against Midland Funding LLC
In Kentucky, the statute of limitations can be six years for a negotiable instrument, not seven years, ten years for a contract after 2014, and 15 years for written agreements before 2014. You can expect Midland funding to claim the debt is not a negotiable instrument. However, if they bought it, they had to negotiate the debt.
Most debt buyers also have indemnification agreements with the original company. If you use the original company, the debt buyer will often dismiss the case. Midland’s attorney has a problem representing the original creditor and Midland funding LLC due to conflicts of interest.
What goes into an answer has to be planned from over 100 different defenses, from laches to waivers. Affirmative defenses must be made in your answer, or you lose the right to assert them. You cannot expect to win without a clear vision of your strategy. It takes experience and knowledge to answer using the proper defenses correctly. You don’t get that knowledge of debt collection without training and years of litigating these cases.
Lack of Proof in a Midland Funding Lawsuit
Midland funding LLC often cannot provide proof. Midland funding LLC can only testify to its records. It can’t submit evidence of the payment history before it gets the account. Midland is a servicer or debt buyer.
It does not know the original owner as to whether payments were made or not. Midland funding LLC has no personal knowledge of what the account history is.
In addition, Midland funding LLC can only testify about what they witnessed and know. Midland funding cannot say what someone else claims such testimony is hearsay. Only the original creditor knows the account history. Midland funding LLC can only testify about its involvement with the account.
There are over 100 legal defenses and problems a midland funding LLC lawsuit can have. This can include Truth in lending (TILA) and other defenses. Midland funding LLC will rarely have the evidence, or I should say, will often not have proper evidence for the court. Instead, it will constantly attempt to prove its case with evidence that is often inadmissible, hearsay, or does not have a proper foundation.
Asking for Discovery
Discovery can ask 25 questions, 25 requests for production of documents, and ask for 25 admissions. Often Midland funding LLC can not produce the documents. When they fail to respond adequately, you can file a motion to compel them to respond. If they continue to fail to respond, you ask for a dismissal.
On the other hand, if they do answer your questions about the alleged debt, they may have problems proving midland funding owns the debt or that it correctly serviced accounts.
Discovery is a way to investigate your case and set up what the undisputed facts are. You may find that you never owed the debt by issuing a discovery and analyzing the evidence. This may be a case of identity theft or disputed charges on the account. The original lender may have filed bankruptcy and no longer be in business. A Trustee may now own the debt. We investigate a case and offer a solution so bankruptcy or litigation may not even be necessary.
Midland funding LLC will often ask for additional time to answer discovery. It will usually not be compliant in answering with partial answers and attempt to avoid questions. Midland funding LLC often stalls and evades for years. However, Midland quickly compels consumers to respond to discovery as a knockout punch.
Summary Judgment Against a Midland Funding LLC Lawsuit
If you can show no remaining questions of fact, you can often get a case dismissed. We will file this as a motion and ask for a dismissal of the case. Sometimes the lawsuit has no merit, or the court may not even have jurisdiction.
Summary motions are a quick knockout punch when there is no merit to a midland funding case, or the plaintiff was not the real party in interest. If there are no facts left to be decided for the judge and the judge only needs to make a decision, the trial costs can be avoided.
Winning Bankruptcy Strategy with Midland Credit Management
Your goal should be to improve your credit report and pay nothing back to Midland funding LLC. You can only file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy once every eight years. A Chapter 7 bankruptcy is the quickest, easiest, and most effective way to:
- Increase your net worth according to 4 different federal bank studies
- Get rid of debt collection agencies and old debts
- improves your credit score typically if the score is below 650 due to unpaid debt.
If you have a massive amount of debt and not just one small account, filing bankruptcy can, within hours, sweep your credit report clean. Almost all of the debt is gone except for mortgage payments, child support, and car loans. Credit card company debts and other debts are rarely repaid anything.
Your credit report non-payment derogatory items are replaced with account closed. Within months most people have their credit reporting swept clean. In 2022, you can keep $28,900 in equity in a home and file. The Midland funding LLC lawsuit is dismissed; any funds garnished from a bank account or wage garnishment are returned.
The entire process takes four months for Chapter 7. A Chapter 13 can also effectively stop foreclosure, student loans, and tax collection. Chapter 13 may be required if your income is too high or you have non-exempt assets.
Bankruptcy Vs. Debt Management
The 2005 Bankruptcy act requires bankruptcy attorneys to call themselves a debt relief agency. Make sure you use a bankruptcy attorney and are not dealing with a debt settlement business. Some debt relief agencies will use the term law group and other methods, leading most consumers to believe they are using a lawyer when they are not.
What Do We Do?
We advise you of your rights. A consumer debt defense lawyer can explain and clearly understand your legal rights and analyze the case with you to devise a legal strategy to protect your assets and prevent old debts from the collection.
Explore your options – Your attorney can explore all possible options available to you. If there is not a viable defense to the collection suit, your lawyer might recommend filing bankruptcy as a way to help protect your financial future and avoid severe consequences like the garnishment of bank accounts or the loss of your assets.
Contact Us to Learn More About Midland Funding LLC!
If you’re worried about midland funding and its debts, we at Nick C. Thompson can help you with the best means. Reach us out to clear all your doubts.
Resources for Bankruptcy
Louisville, Kentucky Bankruptcy Forms
How to Manage Your Car Loans in Bankruptcy
Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Auto Loan Redemption
How to Manage Your Car Loans in Bankruptcy
Options to Avoid Foreclosure with Bankruptcy
If you are considering bankruptcy, don’t delay because timing is crucial. I am here to help you. So, contact our debt relief agency for a free consultation—Nick C. Thompson, Bankruptcy.
