Mel Newcomer's client called, puzzled and angry. The client was being sued by Citibank for nonpayment. There was just one problem: Citibank had the wrong guy. Turns out, said Newcomer, a Lancaster attorney, someone with the same last name and first initial as his client had an account with the bank. But at no time, wrote Newcomer in his response to the lawsuit, had his client had a Citibank credit card; at no time had he ever received a bill from Citibank. The case is still ongoing. But Newcomer, and other local attorneys who deal with debt collection cases involving credit cards, say the scenario is all too familiar. The number of credit card debt collection lawsuits filed in Lancaster County has surged in recent years; the 1,184 cases filed in 2011 might be a record. According to courthouse records, 708 cases were filed here in the first eight months of 2012, an average of 88.5 cases per month. The numbers mirror national trends; across the country, credit card lawsuits have soared as the economy has stumbled. But attorneys and others who deal with these cases say there's a problem: Many of the cases, like Newcomer's, are rife with errors or an utter lack of documentation. Attorneys who defend credit card cases say borrowers should definitely contest the cases in court. But most don't. "Anecdotally, 85 to 90 percent of people who are sued do not defend," said James R. Leonard Jr., a Lancaster attorney who handles many credit card cases. "I think that's what [the debt collectors] are looking for."

Tracking the cases

Until 2010, there was no reliable way for the Lancaster County prothonotary's office to track the number of credit card lawsuits filed here. But anecdotally, the office - and local attorneys - said the number of cases filed here began to rise in 2009, with as many as 300 cases filed in a single month. Then in 2010, the state made it easier to track the cases. Previously, plaintiffs filing a debt-collection suit didn't have to specify what kind of suit it was - whether it involved credit cards, unpaid car loans or some other type of consumer credit. The rule change by the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts required plaintiffs to specify the type of claim; the idea was to better track trends, said AOPC spokesman Art Heinz. The newly available numbers backed up the anecdotal evidence of an increase in filings. In 2010, according to the Lancaster County Prothonotary's office, 1,054 credit card lawsuits were filed here. Last year, the number jumped 12 percent, to 1,184. At the current pace, the number of suits here in 2012 would total 1,064. Bob Thomas, president of Tabor Community Services, said the number of cases might reflect the fact that many local residents' finances are in worse shape than ever before. Tabor provides debt counseling, and has seen an unrelenting stream of clients over the past few years. Thomas said the people Tabor sees today are in worse financial shape than those the agency counseled a year or two ago. "We aren't seeing many people who have been sued by creditors - that step is usually the last resort, and [clients] would come to us before that point," he said. "But what we are seeing, and it's very pronounced in the last year and a half, are people who are in way over their heads. They may not have been sued yet, but they're unemployed, their income is way down, they're just trying to survive and they've got this debt, but they have so little income it doesn't even make sense to get into a debt management plan. "Even if they want to pay it off, even if they submit to [budget] discipline - their income has to be sufficient" to make payments, he said. "And they just don't have it."

'Flooding the courts'

In August, The New York Times reported that "while the amount of bad debt has fallen since the financial crisis, lenders are trying to work through the soured loans and clean up their books" - and as a result, "lawsuits against credit card borrowers are flooding the courts." Many of the nation's largest banks and debt collection companies have filed hundreds of lawsuits in Lancaster County. Of the 708 credit card lawsuits filed here through the end of October, both Citibank and FIA Card Services (Bank of America) filed more than 100 apiece; Discover Card filed 62. Messages to Citibank and Bank of America seeking comment were not returned. While many lawsuits are filed by the credit card issuer itself, others are filed by collection agencies such as LVNV Funding LLC or Asset Acceptance LLC, which purchase "charged off," unpaid debt from credit card firms, sometimes for pennies on the dollar, and then seek to collect. Courthouse records show a majority of those sued simply don't respond to the lawsuit. When that happens, the credit card company can receive a "default judgment," which permits them to garnish bank accounts. "It was rare back in the 1990s to see a credit card company bother to sue," said Lancaster attorney Elizabeth Bartlow. "They also wouldn't try to put liens against people's personal bank accounts. But it's not uncommon now, certain credit card [companies] are more aggressive, and when they get a judgment, they'll freeze people's checking accounts." Attorney Leonard says he's seen suits filed for as little as $900 in unpaid credit card debt. "Debt collection lawsuits are a pure volume business," Tom Pahl, assistant director for the Federal Trade Commission's division of financial practices, told The New York Times for its August story. But Pahl said the FTC had grown concerned that the documentation in credit card cases "is very bare bones," and the agency is working with courts around the country in an attempt to improve the process for "pursuing borrowers" who are behind on credit card payment and other consumer debt. Leonard, the local attorney, said errors are common in the cases he defends. "Especially after years of litigating, you'd think credit card companies would have their act together more," he said. "If they produce an account agreement [between the debtor and company] usually they just throw a generic boilerplate form at you, and you can't tell if there's any connection," if his clients have actually agreed to those specific conditions. In particular, he said, debt collection companies that buy unpaid debt from credit card issuers tend to be thin on documentation. "They typically don't have the records," he said, and without the records, the case falls apart. "Those cases are slam-dunk defendable," he said.