Judges say they launched reforms for debtors' issues
Changes include preventing car collection
The two judges who oversee the Massachusetts district court system said last night that they have launched a series of reforms designed to address ``issues" in the courts' treatment of debtors raised in a Globe Spotlight Team series, including retraining for judges and clerks, new efforts to make debtors aware of their rights, and possible legislation aimed at curbing abuses by debt collectors.
In a joint statement, Lynda M. Connolly, the chief justice of the Massachusetts District Courts, and Robert A. Mulligan, the chief justice for administration and management for all of the state trial courts, said the legislative changes they may seek include one to prevent collectors from seizing cars from most debtors.
The Spotlight series has focused on debt collectors prone to using tough tactics after winning court judgments against debtors. In thousands of cases, the collectors engage constables or county deputy sheriffs to seize the debtors' cars, which are effectively held hostage until they pay the debt.
In addition, the two chief justices said that they may propose legislation to ensure that people being sued over bad debts receive more reliable notice. The Globe found that debtors, in many cases, never receive notice that they are being sued for debts, often because the collector provided a long-outdated address to the court. Two years ago, the 70 district and municipal courts did away with a dual notice requirement used by many states -- first class mail and certified mail -- by eliminating certified mail.
Court officials, Connolly and Mulligan said, ``recognize that people who come before the courts in small claims cases are usually people of limited means and are often embarrassed to be in court under such circumstances. They deserve the utmost courtesy and consideration."
They said the trial court ``is committed to evaluating its practices and improving the delivery of justice."
The carefully worded statement did not specifically acknowledge that there are abuses in the system. But the two judges said they have implemented changes, and since April they have moved aggressively to consider administrative and legislative changes. The planned changes were launched, court officials said, after the Spotlight Team first asked Connolly about the abuses in February.
Robert J. Hobbs, the deputy director of the Boston-based National Consumer Law Center, said the Spotlight series has pointed to the need for the state to move quickly to ensure debtors get sufficient and reliable notice they have been sued. And he said, to assure a fair outcome, debt collectors should be required to produce evidence of the debt -- something that, the Globe found, almost never happens in the small-claims sessions of the district courts.
Ensuring adequate notice to debtors was also a concern for state Senator Robert S. Creedon Jr., the Senate chairman of the Legislature's Joint Committee on the Judiciary. ``If the situation is as bad as [the Globe] reported, then that's got to be addressed," Creedon said in an interview.
Creedon also bemoaned the transformation of the small-claims courts into a system swamped by hundreds of thousands of lawsuits filed by corporate debt collectors.
Small claims sessions, he noted, were designed so ``two folks could go before a magistrate and have an issue heard. But now you have these companies that come in with thousands of complaints. Justice is clearly diminished."
Hobbs, a national authority on consumer debt issues , said the requirement that debtors need only be notified by ordinary mail would be unlikely to ``pass muster in federal court because it does not meet the constitutional standard for due process." A federal court decision against the state ``would cast a shadow over all the judgments" the court issued since it eliminated the back-up certified mail, he said.
Hobbs, referring to the callous treatment of debtors by some court officials, said: ``If it becomes more like a courtroom, and less like a processing mill, some of these abuses would go away."
To make sure that debtors are assured a fair outcome, Hobbs said, the state should require that debtors produce evidence of the debt. Credit card lawsuits are contract cases, he said. For that reason, Hobbs said, the debt collection lawyers would have to produce a copy of the contract on at least one charge slip to establish debtor liability.
Under the present system, Hobbs said, ``I could go into any court in Massachusetts and file 100 credit card claims without even owning the debt, and I would be able to collect 80 default judgments and then collect on them." Such abuses, he noted, have occurred in other states.
Creedon said he believes reforms can be accomplished by Connolly, and would not require new legislation, but that he would consider any new legislative proposals she might have.
Globe reporter Beth Healy contributed to this report. 