Allegations of Collection Agency Attorney Abuses in Indianapolis

The part in this article — about an investigation into attorney abuses and debt collection in Indiana — where I turned off my computer and threw it out the window is here:

“I’m worried that people might perceive they aren’t being treated fairly,” Baker said. “And if they have that perception, it really doesn’t matter if they were treated fairly or not.”

I’m not a fan at all of this idea that perception trumps reality. We see it everywhere, whether it’s in arguments against science to the very nature of truth itself. I think we shouldn’t reward knee-jerk reactions that amount to “I don’t like the way the truth makes me feel, so I’m discarding it in favor of whatever bat-nuttery I choose.”

Anyway.

Defendants in Indianapolis are charging that they’ve been intimadated by attorneys for debt collectors when they’ve met in small claims court. “Marion County’s small claims courts, which typically handle debt collection cases or disputes between landlords and tenants, face allegations that they work too closely with attorneys for debt collectors who engage in intimidation.”

The story gives the usual space to consumers who managed to not receive court summons. (The best part: “Indianapolis resident Krieg Kinnaman recalls…a judgment was entered against him for an outstanding balance on a credit card he didn’t remember having.” I like to imagine Kinnaman as that character from the movie Memento, whose day is always starting right now.)

It also gives one small paragraph for the other side: “Chip Clark, an attorney for Carmel-based debt-collection agency General Credit Services, said he hasn’t seen attorneys behaving badly and doesn’t think he has received special treatment. He said the biggest problem he sees is inconsistency in the way the courts operate, including their schedules.”

What I find compelling in Clark’s quote is something we’ve looked at in the recent spate of stories about debtors’ prisons: It’s not the collection agencies behind this, but a poorly managed court system that leaves everyone — from consumers to collectors — in the dark.

Give us your $0.02 below in the comments.