Stop blaming debt on debtors
The typical American lawsuit isn't filed against McDonald’s by someone scalded by coffee. It is filed by a bank, lender, or debt collector against an individual consumer, seeking to recover an alleged unpaid credit card account, student loan, or medical debt.
In Chicago’s Cook County Circuit Court, for instance, more than 119,000 debt-collection lawsuits were pending in June 2008. In 2005, 120,000 cases were filed in small claims court in Massachusetts; of these, 60 percent were debt-collection lawsuits. In Maryland, 37,000 debt-collection lawsuits were filed in 2011 and 22,000 in 2012. And in New York State, more than 195,000 debt collection lawsuits were filed in 2011 [pdf].
Why is this happening?
