Samuels v. Midland Funding, LLC

Facts

Midland Funding, LLC operates a business model of purchasing small consumer debts in bulk at deep discounts with limited information insufficient to establish debt validity, ownership, or balance calculations. The defendant makes no effort to obtain evidence to sustain its burden of proof at trial and has no intention of proving claims at trial. Instead, it files lawsuits intending to obtain default judgments or settlements if consumers respond. The defendant appears at trial only to take default judgment or pressure unrepresented consumers into settlement, not to prove its case, as it possesses no evidence. This model succeeds in obtaining default judgment or settlement in ninety percent of cases filed. In the remaining ten percent, the defendant appears through counsel without witnesses or competent evidence, and trial courts enter judgment for consumers. Following this pattern with Samuels, who denied owing any debt, the defendant filed suit after purchasing the debt in bulk without taking reasonable steps to ensure validity and with no intention of obtaining evidence but intending to intimidate or coerce payment or obtain default judgment. Samuels retained counsel and appeared at trial where the defendant’s attorney appeared without witnesses or documents to prove the case, and the court entered judgment for Samuels.