July 2008
Wanted to alert you and your readers about Brachfeld. I took your advice and taped their call. A Ms. Russell at 866-835-1915 ext 6083, told me a lawsuit had been filed by Attorney Brachfeld on an old Providian debt. She said the case was on the docket in Dallas County, that I could authorize a check by phone and she would stop the suit. She was pretty good at talking the trash, I was happy that my tape was rolling. I contacted the Dallas County Bar Association who sent me to the State Bar. A very nice woman told me that Brachfeld is not licensed to practice law in Texas and I am filing an ethics complaint in writing. I encourage anyone else in Texas to do the same. Her Real name is Erica Lynn Brachfeld-Governing. I also talked to the attorney you referred me to who said that Brachfeld & Meridian Management do not have a bond. Tell your readers they can sue Brachfeld/Meridian and make money on their stupidity. I'm happy you are there helping the consumers of Texas. Our calls and complaints have increased on Erica and her "so-called Texas law office" by 200% in the past 60 days.
June 2008
Here's a complaint to the FTC I sent
the DAY AFTER I sent a complaint to Attorney General Edmund
G. Brown: These guys don't get it at all.
This company known as: Meridian Management Solutions
aka/Brachfeld & Associates, P.C.
dba/California Meridian Management Solutions, LLC
aka/The Minority Legal Network
keeps harassing me about a debt that they have "purchased"
from another financial institution. I have sent them a
"CEASE AND DESIST" certified letter to stop calling my
residence that they received on 6/11/08 at 12:39 pm. They
have since kept up the harassing calls and keep hanging up
on me. I reported them to California's Attorney General
Edmund G. Brown on /6/17/08 about these calls and they have
called me twice today (06/18/08) the last call being at 8:07
pm -- as I was filling out this complaint form. I told them
what I was doing and they hung up on me (as they did when
told them I was reporting them to Mr. Brown).
Here is a quote from Bud Hibbs who has obviously dealt with
this so-called "company" before:
*Brachfeld & Associates are licensed to practice law in the
State of California. NOT in the State of Texas! NONE of her
organizations, collecting debts in Texas are licensed or
bonded, a violation of Texas law. Their collectors are
calling Texas residents threatening legal actions by
attorney Brachfeld. This is a CONSUMER SCAM! If you are
contacted by any of the organizations listed above, contact
us for assistance and referral to attorneys who can deal
with them. Do NOT believe what they tell you, they are
lying.
Here is Brachfeld's other addresses: P.O. Box 11029 Carson,
CA 90749 Phone: 888-459-0999 310-273-7867
Fax: 310-273-9867
800 W. Sam Houston Pkwy S. #200 Houston, TX 77042
Phone: 866-834-6218 866-354-3556 713-579-7000
I will file a complaint against their Texas office to
Attorney General Greg Abbott if I receive a call from the
company's Texas branch.
June 2008
I had this company contact me yesterday and threatened to sue me. They threatened to take my second car, and to garnish my husbands wages as I am unable to work. The debt that I have with them is 4 years old and they claim that I owe them 2700! The original amount was 1000.
June 2008
My letter from them had this address Brachfeld & Associates 800 W Sam Houston Pkwy S. #200 Houston, Texas 77042 and listed Natasha Tryon as manager of Operations. My question is - What is a "Collection Law Firm" I saw your warning that they are not lawyers in Texas, but this seems to indicate they are. Should I contact the State Bar?
June 2008
I received a call ref an old account from 2003 however, when i asked questions about how they attained my phone number the caller got aggravated and starting telling me how this was affecting my credit, i asked him to send me the "offer" in writing. He then accused me of trying to use a stall tactic???? Like the other person said i heard a lot of chatter in the office. Oh this is the best part i offered a lower settlement amount and he "emailed" the creditor and got what seemed to be an instant reply to accept???? So i hung up on him it was very unsettling. I just don't understand how they had my old address but my new number. why i hadn't received any letters or previous phone calls. something is not right. I am also concerned that they claim i owe $4000 of interest and other fees and i have not received any communication since 2003. They also would not send me any letter, he insisted on me providing a fax number. i am not sure of my rights i know this is not just.
May 2008 Brachfeld and Associates
I have been getting weekly calls from Meridian Management asking me to provide my social security number (I will never do that) and told "You can't get out of this one." Also toldI need to have my lawyer call them. I can't figure out what they are hinting at. I pulled my credit report and while I have two debts more than four years old (in California) and I need to make good on those, one of those debts is listed with a later than the last action, like it is a newer debt. It has been over 4 years, yet they (and it's a different company) renewed the . Plus, the amount of the debt is about 4 times more than I remember. So, as you see, I have lots of issues here. Now I am frightened these people will be hunting me down to serve me. I don't want to talk to them because I don't want my words twisted around. I can't afford a lawyer, and if I could, the debt would have been paid off. I don't even see Meridian Management or any of their other companies listed on my credit reports.
May 2008 Brachfeld and Associates
I have had my own dealings with this company, which were unpleasant to say the least. I am very taken aback after reading all the statements made on this company by other parties like myself. I can't believe what I am seeing... my issue was that I had previously paid the debt in question, and they were continuing to harass me even after being provided proof of payment via fax. But, there are people saying that they didn't pay the original creditor simply because they didn't want to? Or even better is the person saying not to pay because their VP is a sexual louse? Grow up....pay your bills to the creditors, or contact the creditor directly like I did and make a complaint. I paid my bill and had these slimy people trying to collect....what goes around tends to come around, and it applies to the dirty collection agencies, but also to the folks who have no qualms stiffing people they borrowed from. I feel for those who are being unduly attacked by these sharks, but have no sympathy for people who just tend to say 'scr#w it' and make no attempt to resolve their issues.
March 2008 Brachfeld and Associates
I have an old Wells Fargo account the account for $1000.00 dollars or so close to 3 years now. I didn't pay them because I didn't want to pay them I fell on some real hard times, one thing after another went wrong the biggest one was my employer cutting my hours from 40 to 24 hours a week I worked 24 hours for over a year and unfortunately I work all over the clock my days off and shifts changed from week to week. Anyways I stopped hearing from wells fargo about 2 years ago then I started hearing from a dept collector, I tried to work a deal but I was unable to. I never heard a thing for a long time then I started hearing from northstar they were RUDE right from the get go, they didn't want to settle for anything I could afford, so we didn't come to any arrangement. A month or so went by then I get a guy show up at my door and handed me paper work from the El Cajon court house stating that a civil case has been filed with the court house. I called the court house and they said it was legit because I thought it was bull shit at first. The court clerk said that they get alot of filings form Brachfeld and that they usually win by default and that I had 30 days to either file a a general denial form settle wth them or do nothing which doing nothing insures that they win for sure by default i filed a general denial since I had never heard of northstar capital acquisition before wells fargo was no where on the court papers. My 30 days is now up. but before my 30 days ended I got a couple more phone calls from them and they were even nastier they threatened to garnish 25% of my pay check take one of my cars if I owned more than 1 garnish my bank accounts they were real assholes the last time I talked to them the person I talked to said that he was going to recommend that they not settle for anything other then the full amount of $1,725.00 court filing fee and interest I guess, they were going to settle for $1,075.00 the original amount I owed but they didn't want to
March 2008 Brachfeld and Associates
I have read this site and the comments posted. Everything I have seen here has hapen to me by Brachfeld & Associates. I was never personally served a anything. I came home to an envelope taped to my front door regarding a law suit and again a few days later by mail.Upon contacting Brachfeld & associates I was sent infromation on a debt that they could not even verify. The bad thing is that I settled the account not knowing for sure if I owed that amount of not. The fufunny thing is, that not even one month after I paid them off I get a phone call stating that I owe for another account that they can't send me info about. This time I'm going to court!
September 19, 2007
FIRST AND FOREMOST THE VICE PRESIDENT TIM HERNANDEZ IS UNPROFESSIONAL PERSON AS WELL AS A PERVERT. DO NOT PAY THESE LOSERS. TIM HERNANDEZ IS TOO BUSY FLIRTING WITH THE GIRLS. TO REALIZE THE COMPANY IS A VIOLATING FDCPA LAWS. TIM'S CONDUCT IS JEOPARDIZING THE LAW FIRM WITH HIS SEXUAL HARASSMENT TOWARDS WOMEN.
May 3, 2007
I saw your web-site and was able to
identify many collectors I have dealt with the last year and
half. Most I have written cease and desist letters and it
has resolved the contacts. I saw your comments on Brachfeld
& Associates who I have been sued by, the interesting thing
I found was when I was notified about the suit, I was not
personally served, nor were any attempts to serve made so to
allow a sub-service by mail. But within a few days of the
filing I received a copy of the lawsuit in the mail, no
return address on the envelope. I am aware the service is
not valid, and any judgment can be set aside upon filing a
motion that service was not properly done.
I did some research and went to the Superior Court of
California, Orange County, and put Erica L. Brachfeld in the
court search of records under civil matters, and her firm
has just alone 997 cases filled to
for collection type
matters, and a mass majority of them our sub-services, so I
have a strong feeling who ever is filing these cases from
her firm are not worrying about service on all the cases and
just maybe be doing gutter service hoping that the cases
will go to default judgment and they will attempt to collect
from those unknowing and get some money from them without
the proper due process. I have not checked the other
counties in California, but I will guess their case records
will show the same type of pattern as in Orange County
California. And after reading your site and your entry on
her, I have a feeling I could be right.
In California a person attempting to serve a summons and complaint has varying ways to serve, but to do sub-service they must use due diligence, and fill an affidavit showing their attempts as set by California Civil Procedures under service of process. And I know for certain it did not occur here in my case. So maybe some of your readers may have had the same dealings with her firm. I wish I was able to do more, but my illness keeps me from things, but this is why I am in the situation I am in, but debt collectors don't care one bit as you know, so I refuse to even talk with them, because it upsets me to much, and it is not good for me. I was a bit worried about writing this, because I really feel this lady and many others would do alot of illegal things to get their money, and when you are living on a limited income be it social security disability or disability pay, your not breaking the bank and just living. But I wanted to share it with you, as you said you do not publish any id information of the person, because I'm sure they read what is said about them. But maybe it will help someone else. Keep up the good work Mr.Hibbs, and I look forward to seeing the movie maxedout.