BATON ROUGE – A Denham Springs woman has filed a class-action suit against a debt collector over allegations it tried to charge fees that it is not permitted by law to collect.
Barbara McLain, individually and on behalf all others similarly situated filed a complaint on Nov. 22 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana against Head Mercantile Co. Inc. alleging that the debt collector violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.
According to the complaint, the plaintiff alleges that on March 30 and July 20, she received collection letters from the defendant attempting to collect the amount of $21.70, plus a convenience fee of $2, and an order to make payments to The SOS Group. The plaintiff holds Head Mercantile Co. Inc. responsible because the defendant allegedly falsely represented that it could legally charge a $2 fee for payments made by check over the telephone and falsely represented that it was entitled to collect the debt from plaintiff when it is not licensed in the state.
The plaintiff requests a trial by jury and seeks an order determining that this action is a proper class action, designating plaintiff as a class representative, award for a minimum individual recovery, not to exceed the lesser of $500,000 or 1 percent of the net worth of the debt collector, attorney's fees and costs and such other and further relief. He is represented by Katherine Z. Crouch of Crouch Law LLC in New Orleans.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana Case number 3:16-cv-00780